A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S 
WAR  EXPERIENCE 


A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S 
WAR  EXPERIENCE 


TRANSLATED  BY  J.  KOETTGEN 


NEW  YORK 

B.  W.  HUEBSCH 

MCMXVII 


COPYRIGHT,  1917,  BY 
B.  W.  HUEBSCH 


Published,  April,  1917 
Second  printing,  April,  1917 

Third  printing,  June,  1917 
Fourth  printing,  July,  1917 
Fifth  printing,  August,  1917 


FEINTED    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    OP    AMERICA 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

The  following  narrative  first  appeared  in  German  in 
the  columns  of  the  New  Yorker  Volkszeitung,  the  prin- 
cipal organ  of  the  German  speaking  Socialists  in  the 
United  States.  Its  author,  who  escaped  from  Germany 
and  military  service  after  14?  months  of  fighting  in 
France,  is  an  intelligent  young  miner.  He  does  not 
wish  to  have  his  name  made  public,  fearing  that  those 
who  will  be  offended  by  his  frankness  might  vent  their 
wrath  on  his  relatives.  Since  his  arrival  in  this  country 
his  friends  and  acquaintances  have  come  to  know  him 
as  an  upright  and  truthful  man  whose  word  can  be  re- 
lied upon. 

The  vivid  description  of  the  life  of  a  common  German 
soldier  in  the  present  war  aroused  great  interest  when 
the  story  presented  in  these  pages  to  the  English  speak- 
ing reader  was  published  in  serial  form.  For  here  was 
an  historian  of  the  war  who  had  been  through  the  hor- 
rors of  the  carnage  as  one  of  the  "  Huns,"  one  of  the 
"  Boches  " ;  a  soldier  who  had  not  abdicated  his  reason ; 
a  warrior  against  his  will,  who  nevertheless  had  to  con- 
form to  the  etiquette  of  war ;  a  hater  of  militarism  for 
whom  there  was  no  romance  in  war,  but  only  butchery 
and  brutality,  grime  and  vermin,  inhuman  toil  and 
degradation.  Moreover,  he  was  found  to  be  no  mean 
observer  of  men  and  things.  His  technical  training  at 
a  school  of  mining  enabled  him  to  obtain  a  much  clearer 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

understanding  of  the  war  of  position  than  the  average 
soldier  possesses. 

Most  soldiers  who  have  been  in  the  war  and  have 
written  down  their  experiences  have  done  so  in  the  cus- 
tomary way,  never  questioning  for  a  moment  the  moral 
justification  of  war.  Not  so  our  author.  He  could  not 
persuade  his  conscience  to  make  a  distinction  between 
private  and  public  morality,  and  the  angle  from  which 
he  views  the  events  he  describes  is  therefore  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  other  actual  observers  of  and  par- 
ticipators in  war.  His  story  also  contains  the  first 
German  description  of  the  retreat  of  the  Teutonic  ar- 
mies after  the  battle  of  the  Marne.  The  chief  value  of 
this  soldier's  narrative  lies,  however,  in  his  destructive, 
annihilating  criticism  of  the  romance  and  fabled  virtues 
of  war.  If  some  of  the  incidents  related  in  this  book 
appear  to  be  treated  too  curtly  it  is  solely  due  to  this 
author's  limited  literary  powers.  If,  for  instance,  he 
does  not  dwell  upon  his  inner  experiences  during  his  ter- 
rible voyage  to  America  in  the  coal  bunker  of  a  Dutch 
ship  it  is  because  he  is  not  a  literary  artist,  but  a  simple 
workman. 

The  translator  hopes  that  he  has  succeeded  in  repro- 
ducing faithfully  the  substance  and  the  spirit  of  the 
story,  and  that  this  little  book  will  contribute  in  com- 
bating one  of  the  forces  that  make  for  war  —  popular 
ignorance  of  war's  realities.  Let  each  individual  fully 
grasp  and  understand  the  misery,  degradation,  and  de- 
struction that  await  him  in  war,  and  the  barbarous 
ordeal  by  carnage  will  quickly  become  the  most  unpopu- 
lar institution  on  earth. 

J.    KOETTGEN. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

Translator's  Preface v 

I     Marching  into  Belgium 1 

II     Fighting  in  Belgium 8 

III  Shooting  Civilians  in  Belgium       ...  23 

IV  German  Soldiers  and  Belgian  Civilians  .  32 
V  The  Horrors  of  Street  Fighting  ...  38 

VI     Crossing  the  Meuse 45 

VII     In  Pursuit 49 

VIII  Nearly  Buried  Alive  on  the  Battlefield  58 

IX  Soldiers  Shooting  Their  Own  Officers    .  65 

X     Sacking  Suippes 73 

XI  Marching  to  the  Battle  of  the  Marne  — 

Into  the  Trap 82 

XII  At  the  Marne  — In  the  Maw  of  Death  .  89 

XIII  The  Rout  of  the  Marne 99 

XIV  The  Flight  from  the  Marne     ....  108 
XV    At  the  End  of  the  Flight 120 

XVI  The  Beginning  of  Trench  Warfare    .      .130 

XVII  Friendly   Relations  with  the   Enemy     .  142 

XVIII     Fighting  in  the  Argonnes 148 

XIX     Christmas  in  the  Trenches 156 

XX     The  "  Itch  "—A  Savior 164 

XXI     In  the  Hell  of  Vauquois 172 

XXII     Sent  on  Furlough 178 

XXIII  The  Flight  to  Holland 183 

XXIV  America  and  Safety 189 


A  GERMAN  DESERTERS  WAR 
EXPERIENCE 


MARCHING    INTO    BELGIUM 

At  the  end  of  July  our  garrison  at  Koblenz  was 
feverishly  agitated.  Part  of  our  men  were  seized  by 
an  indescribable  enthusiasm,  others  became  subject  to 
a  feeling  of  great  depression.  The  declaration  of  war 
was  in  the  air.  I  belonged  to  those  who  were  depressed. 
For  I  was  doing  my  second  year  of  military  service  and 
was  to  leave  the  barracks  in  six  weeks'  time.  Instead 
of  the  long  wished-for  return  home  war  was  facing  me. 

Also  during  my  military  service  I  had  remained  the 
anti-militarist  I  had  been  before.  I  could  not  imagine 
what  interest  I  could  have  in  the  mass  murder,  and  I 
also  pointed  out  to  my  comrades  that  under  all  circum- 
stances war  was  the  greatest  misfortune  that  could  hap- 
pen to  humanity. 

Our  sapper  battalion,  No.  30,  had  been  in  feverish 
activity  five  days  before  the  mobilization ;  work  was 
being  pushed  on  day  and  night  so  that  we  were  fully 
prepared  for  war  already  on  the  23rd  of  July,  and  on 
the  30th  of  July  there  was  no  person  in  our  barracks 
who  doubted  that  war  would  break  out.  Moreover, 
there  was  the  suspicious  amiability  of  the  officers  and 
sergeants,    which    excluded    any    doubt    that    any    one 

1 


2  A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

might  still  have  had.  Officers  who  had  never  before 
replied  to  the  salute  of  a  private  soldier  now  did  so  with 
the  utmost  attention.  Cigars  and  beer  were  distributed 
in  those  days  by  the  officers  with  great,  uncommon 
liberality,  so  that  it  was  not  surprising  that  many  sol- 
diers were  scarcely  ever  sober  and  did  not  realize  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation.  But  there  were  also  oth- 
ers. There  were  soldiers  who  also  in  those  times  of 
good-humor  and  the  grinning  comradeship  of  officer 
and  soldier  could  not  forget  that  in  military  service 
they  had  often  been  degraded  to  the  level  of  brutes,  and 
who  now  thought  with  bitter  feelings  that  an  oppor- 
tunity might  perhaps  be  offered  in  order  to  settle  ac- 
counts. 

The  order  of  mobilization  became  known  on  the  1st 
of  August,  and  the  following  day  was  decided  upon  as 
the  real  day  of  mobilization.  But  without  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  the  reserves  we  left  our  garrison  town  on 
August  1st.  Who  was  to  be  our  "  enemy  "  we  did  not 
know;  Russia  was  for  the  present  the  only  country 
against  which  war  had  been  declared. 

We  marched  through  the  streets  of  the  town  to  the 
station  between  crowds  of  people  numbering  many 
thousands.  Flowers  were  thrown  at  us  from  every  win- 
dow ;  everybody  wanted  to  shake  hands  with  the  depart- 
ing soldiers.  All  the  people,  even  soldiers,  were  weep- 
ing. Many  marched  arm  in  arm  with  their  wife  or 
sweetheart.  The  music  played  songs  of  leave-taking. 
People  cried  and  sang  at  the  same  time.  Entire 
strangers,  men  and  women,  embraced  and  kissed  each 
other;  men  embraced  men  and  kissed  each  other.  It 
was  a  real  witches'  sabbath  of  emotion ;  like  a  wild  tor- 
rent, that  emotion  carried  away  the  whole  assembled 
humanity.     Nobody,  not  even  the  strongest  and  most 


MARCHING  INTO  BELGIUM  3 

determined  spirit,  could  resist  that  ebullition  of  feeling. 

But  all  that  was  surpassed  by  the  taking  leave  at  the 
station,  which  we  reached  after  a  short  march.  Here 
final  adieus  had  to  be  said,  here  the  separation  had  to 
take  place.  I  shall  never  forget  that  leave-taking, 
however  old  I  may  grow  to  be.  Desperately  many 
women  clung  to  their  men ;  some  had  to  be  removed  by 
force.  Just  as  if  they  had  suddenly  had  a  vision  of 
the  fate  of  their  beloved  ones,  as  if  they  were  beholding 
the  silent  graves  in  foreign  lands  in  which  those  poor 
nameless  ones  were  to  be  buried,  they  sought  to  cling 
fast  to  their  possession,  to  retain  what  already  no 
longer  belonged  to  them. 

Finally  that,  too,  was  over.  We  had  entered  a  train 
that  had  been  kept  ready,  and  had  made  ourselves  com- 
fortable in  our  cattle-trucks.  Darkness  had  come,  and 
we  had  no  light  in  our  comfortable  sixth-class  carriages. 

The  train  moved  slowly  down  the  Rhine,  it  went  along 
without  any  great  shaking,  and  some  of  us  were  seized 
by  a  worn-out  feeling  after  those  days  of  great  excite- 
ment. Most  of  the  soldiers  lay  with  their  heads  on 
their  knapsacks  and  slept.  Others  again  tried  to  pierce 
the  darkness  as  if  attempting  to  look  into  the  future; 
still  others  drew  stealthily  a  photo  out  of  their  breast- 
pocket, and  only  a  very  small  number  of  us  spent  the 
time  by  debating  our  point  of  destination.  Where  are 
we  going  to?  Well,  where?  Nobody  knew  it.  At  last, 
after  long,  infinitely  long  hours  the  train  came  to  a 
.stop.  After  a  night  of  quiet,  slow  riding  we  were  at 
—  Aix-la-Chapclle  !  At  Aix-la-Chapellc !  What  were 
we  doing  at  Aix-la-Chapellc?  We  did  not  know,  and 
the  officers  only  shrugged  their  shoulders  when  we  asked 
them. 

After  a  short  interval  the  journey  proceeded,  and  on 


4         A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

the  evening  of  the  2nd  of  August  we  reached  a  farm  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  German  and  Belgian  frontier, 
near  Herbesthal.  Here  our  company  was  quartered  in 
a  barn.  Nobody  knew  what  our  business  was  at  the 
Belgian  frontier.  In  the  afternoon  of  the  3rd  of  Au- 
gust reservists  arrived,  and  our  company  was  brought 
to  its  war  strength.  We  had  still  no  idea  concerning 
the  purpose  of  our  being  sent  to  the  Belgian  frontier, 
and  that  evening  we  lay  down  on  our  bed  of  straw  with 
a  forced  tranquillity  of  mind.  Something  was  sure  to 
happen  soon,  to  deliver  us  from  that  oppressive  uncer- 
tainty. How  few  of  us  thought  that  for  many  it  would 
be  the  last  night  to  spend  on  German  soil ! 

A  subdued  signal  of  alarm  fetched  us  out  of  our 
"  beds  "  at  3  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  company 
assembled,  and  the  captain  explained  to  us  the  war 
situation.  He  informed  us  that  we  had  to  keep  ready 
to  march,  that  he  himself  was  not  yet  informed  about 
the  direction.  Scarcely  half  an  hour  later  fifty  large 
traction  motors  arrived  and  stopped  in  the  road  be- 
fore our  quarters.  But  the  drivers  of  these  wagons, 
too,  knew  no  particulars  and  had  to  wait  for  orders. 
The  debate  about  our  nearest  goal  was  resumed.  The 
orderlies,  who  had  snapped  up  many  remarks  of  the 
officers,  ventured  the  opinion  that  we  would  march  into 
Belgium  the  very  same  day ;  others  contradicted  them. 
None  of  us  could  know  anything  for  certain.  But  the 
order  to  march  did  not  arrive,  and  in  the  evening  all 
of  us  could  lie  down  again  on  our  straw.  But  it  was 
a  short  rest.  At  1  o'clock  in  the  morning  an  alarm 
aroused  us  again,  and  the  captain  honored  us  with  an 
address.  He  told  us  we  were  at  war  with  Belgium, 
that  we  should  acquit  ourselves  as  brave  soldiers,  earn 
iron  crosses,  and  do  honor  to  our  German  name.     Then 


MARCHING  INTO  BELGIUM  5 

he  continued  somewhat  as  follows :  "  We  are  making 
war  only  against  the  armed  forces,  that  is  the  Belgium 
army.  The  lives  and  property  of  civilians  are  under 
the  protection  of  international  treaties,  international 
law,  but  you  soldiers  must  not  forget  that  it  is  your 
duty  to  defend  your  lives  as  long  as  possible  for  the  pro- 
tection of  your  Fatherland,  and  to  sell  them  as  dearly 
as  possible.  We  want  to  prevent  useless  shedding  of 
blood  as  far  as  the  civilians  are  concerned,  but  I  want 
to  remind  you  that  a  too  great  considerateness  borders 
on  cowardice,  and  cowardice  in  face  of  the  enemy  is 
punished  very  severely." 

After  that  "  humane "  speech  by  our  captain  we 
were  "  laden  "  into  the  automobiles,  and  crossed  the 
Belgian  frontier  on  the  morning  of  August  5th.  In 
order  to  give  special  solemnity  to  that  "  historical  " 
moment  we  had  to  give  three  cheers. 

At  no  other  moments  the  fruits  of  military  education 
have  presented  themselves  more  clearly  before  my  mind. 
The  soldier  is  told,  "  The  Belgian  is  your  enemy,"  and 
he  has  to  believe  it.  The  soldier,  the  workman  in  uni- 
form, had  not  known  till  then  who  was  his  enemy.  If 
they  had  told  us,  "  The  Hollander  is  your  enemy,"  we 
would  have  believed  that,  too ;  we  would  have  been  com- 
pelled to  believe  it,  and  would  have  shot  him  by  order. 
We,  the  "  German  citizens  in  uniform,"  must  not  have 
an  opinion  of  our  own,  must  have  no  thoughts  of  our 
own,  for  they  give  us  our  enemy  and  our  friend  accord- 
ing to  requirements,  according  to  the  requirements  of 
their  own  interests.  The  Frenchman,  the  Belgian,  the 
Italian,  is  your  enemy.  Never  mind,  shoot  as  we  or- 
der, and  do  not  bother  your  head  about  it.  You  have 
duties  to  perform,  perform  them,  and  for  the  rest  — 
cut  it  out! 


6         A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

Those  were  the  thoughts  that  tormented  my  brain 
when  crossing  the  Belgian  frontier.  And  to  console 
myself,  and  so  as  to  justify  before  my  own  conscience 
the  murderous  trade  that  had  been  thrust  upon  me,  I 
tried  to  persuade  myself  that  though  I  had  no  Father- 
land to  defend,  I  had  to  defend  a  home  and  protect  it 
from  devastation.  But  it  was  a  weak  consolation,  and 
did  not  even  outlast  the  first  few  days. 

Traveling  in  the  fairly  quick  motor-cars  we  reached, 
towards  8  o'clock  in  the  morning,  our  preliminary  des- 
tination, a  small  but  pretty  village.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  villages  which  we  had  passed  stared  at  us  in 
speechless  astonishment,  so  that  we  all  had  the  impres- 
sion that  those  peasants  for  the  most  part  did  not 
know  why  we  had  come  to  Belgium.  They  had  been 
roused  from  their  sleep  and,  half-dressed,  they  gazed 
from  their  windows  after  our  automobiles.  After  we 
had  stopped  and  alighted,  the  peasants  of  that  village 
came  up  to  us  without  any  reluctance,  offered  us  food, 
and  brought  us  coffee,  bread,  meat,  etc.  As  the  field- 
kitchen  had  not  arrived  we  were  glad  to  receive  those 
kindly  gifts  of  the  "  enemy,"  the  more  so  because  those 
fine  fellows  absolutely  refused  any  payment.  They 
told  us  the  Belgian  soldiers  had  left,  for  where  they  did 
not  know. 

After  a  short  rest  we  continued  our  march  and  the 
motor-cars  went  back.  We  had  scarcely  marched  for 
an  hour  when  cavalry,  dragoons  and  huzzars,  overtook 
us  and  informed  us  that  the  Germans  were  marching 
forward  in  the  whole  neighborhood,  and  that  cyclist 
companies  were  close  on  our  heels.  That  was  comfort- 
ing news,  for  we  no  longer  felt  lonely  and  isolated  in 
this  strange  country.  Soon  after  the  troop  of  cyclists 
really  came  along.     It  passed  us  quickly  and  left  us  by 


MARCHING  INTO  BELGIUM  7 

ourselves  again.  Words  of  anger  were  to  be  heard 
now ;  all  the  others  were  able  to  ride,  but  we  had  to 
Walk.  What  we  always  had  considered  as  a  matter  of 
course  was  now  suddenly  felt  by  us  to  be  a  great  in- 
justice. And  though  our  scolding  and  anger  did  not 
help  us  in  the  least,  it  turned  our  thoughts  from  the 
heaviness  of  the  "monkey"  (knapsack)  which  rested 
like  a  leaden  weight  on  our  backs. 

The  heat  was  oppressive,  the  perspiration  issued 
from  every  pore;  the  new  and  hard  leather  straps,  the 
new  stiff  uniforms  rubbed  against  many  parts  of  the 
body  and  made  them  sore,  especially  round  the  waist. 
With  great  joy  we  therefore  hailed  the  order  that  came 
at  2  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  to  halt  before  an  isolated 
farm  and  rest  in  the  grass. 


II 

FIGHTING    IN    BELGIUM 

About  ten  minutes  we  might  have  lain  in  the  grass 
when  we  suddenly  heard  rifle  shots  in  front  of  us. 
Electrified,  all  of  us  jumped  up  and  hastened  to  our 
rifles.  Then  the  firing  of  rifles  that  was  going  on  at 
a  distance  of  about  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half  began 
steadily  to  increase  in  volume.  We  set  in  motion  im- 
mediately. 

The  expression  and  the  behavior  of  the  soldiers  be- 
trayed that  something  was  agitating  their  mind,  that 
an  emotion  had  taken  possession  of  them  which  they 
could  not  master  and  had  never  experienced  before. 
On  myself  I  could  observe  a  great  restlessness.  Fear 
and  curiosity  threw  my  thoughts  into  a  wild  jumble; 
my  head  was  swimming,  and  everything  seemed  to  press 
upon  my  heart.  But  I  wished  to  conceal  my  fears  from 
my  comrades.  I  know  I  tried  to  with  a  will,  but  whether 
I  succeeded  better  than  my  comrades,  whose  uneasiness 
I  could  read  in  their  faces,  I  doubt  very  much. 

TTiough  I  was  aware  that  we  should  be  in  the  firing 
line  within  half  an  hour,  I  endeavored  to  convince  my- 
self that  our  participation  in  the  fight  would  no  longer 
be  necessary.  I  clung  obstinately,  nay,  almost  con- 
vulsively to  every  idea  that  could  strengthen  that  hope 
or  give  me  consolation.  That  not  every  bullet  finds  its 
billet ;  that,  as  we  had  been  told,  most  wounds  in  mod- 
ern wars  were  afflicted  by  grazing  shots  which  caused 

8 


FIGHTING  IN  BELGIUM  9 

slight  flesh-wounds ;  those  were  some  of  the  reiterated 
self-deceptions  indulged  in  against  my  better  knowl- 
edge. And  they  proved  effective.  It  was  not  only  that 
they  made  me  in  fact  feel  more  easy ;  deeply  engaged  in 
those  thoughts  I  had  scarcely  observed  that  we  were 
already  quite  near  the  firing  line. 

The  bicycles  at  the  side  of  the  road  revealed  to  us 
that  the  cyclist  corps  were  engaged  by  the  enemy.  We 
did  not  know,  of  course,  the  strength  of  our  opponents 
as  we  approached  the  firing  line  in  leaps.  In  leaping 
forward  every  one  bent  down  instinctively,  whilst  to  our 
right  and  left  and  behind  us  the  enemy's  bullets  could  be 
heard  striking;  yet  we  reached  the  firing  line  without 
any  casualties  and  were  heartily  welcomed  by  our  hard- 
pressed  friends.  The  cyclists,  too,  had  not  yet  suf- 
fered any  losses ;  some,  it  is  true,  had  already  been 
slightly  wounded,  but  they  could  continue  to  participate 
in  the  fight. 

We  were  lying  flat  on  the  ground,  and  fired  in  the 
direction  indicated  to  us  as  fast  as  our  rifles  would 
allow.  So  far  we  had  not  seen  our  opponents.  That, 
it  seemed,  was  too  little  interesting  to  some  of  our  sol- 
diers ;  so  they  rose  partly,  and  fired  in  a  kneeling  po- 
sition. Two  men  of  my  company  had  to  pay  their 
curiosity  with  their  lives.  Almost  at  one  and  the  same 
time  they  were  shot  through  the  head.  The  first  victim 
of  our  group  fell  down  forward  without  uttering  a 
sound;  the  second  threw  up  his  arms  and  fell  on  his 
back.     Both  of  them  were  dead  instantly. 

Who  could  describe  the  feelings  that  overcome  a  man 
in  the  first  real  hail  of  bullets  he  is  in?  When  we  were 
leaping  forward  to  reach  the  firing  line  I  felt  no  longer 
any  fear  and  seemed  only  to  try  to  reach  the  line  as 
quickly  as  possible.      But  when  looking  at  the  first  dead 


10       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

man  I  was  seized  by  a  terrible  horror.  For  minutes 
I  was  perfectly  stupefied,  had  completely  lost  command 
over  myself  and  was  absolutely  incapable  to  think  or 
act.  I  pressed  my  face  and  hands  firmly  against  the 
ground,  and  then  suddenly  I  was  seized  by  an  irre- 
pressible excitement,  took  hold  of  my  gun,  and  began 
to  fire  away  blindly.  Little  after  little  I  quieted  down 
again  somewhat,  nay,  I  became  almost  quite  confident 
as  if  everything  was  normal.  Suddenly  I  found  myself 
content  with  myself  and  my  surroundings,  and  when  a 
little  later  the  whole  line  was  commanded,  "  Leap  for- 
ward !  March,  march !  "  I  ran  forward  demented  like 
the  others,  as  if  things  could  not  be  other  than  what 
they  were.  The  order,  "  Position !  "  followed,  and  we 
flopped  down  like  wet  bags.  Firing  had  begun  again. 
Our  firing  became  more  lively  from  minute  to  min- 
ute, and  grew  into  a  rolling  deafening  noise.  If  in  such 
an  infernal  noise  you  want  to  make  yourself  understood 
by  your  neighbor,  you  have  to  shout  at  him  so  that 
it  hurts  your  throat.  The  effect  of  our  firing  caused 
our  opponent  to  grow  unsteady ;  his  fire  became  weaker ; 
the  line  of  the  enemy  began  to  waver.  Being  separated 
from  the  enemy  by  only  about  500  yards,  we  could  ob- 
serve exactly  what  was  happening  there.  We  saw  how 
about  half  of  the  men  opposing  us  were  drawn  back. 
The  movement  is  executed  by  taking  back  every  sec- 
ond man  whilst  number  one  stays  on  until  the  retir- 
ing party  has  halted.  We  took  advantage  of  that 
movement  to  inflict  the  severest  losses  possible  on  our 
retreating  opponent.  As  far  as  we  could  survey  the 
country  to  our  right  and  left  we  observed  that  the 
Germans  were  pressing  forward  at  several  points.  Our 
company,  too,  received  the  order  to  advance  when  the 
enemy  took  back  all  his  forces. 


FIGHTING  IN  BELGIUM  11 

Our  task  was  to  cling  obstinately  to  the  heels  of  the 
retreating  enemy  so  as  to  leave  him  no  time  to  collect 
his  forces  and  occupy  new  positions.  We  therefore 
followed  him  in  leaps  with  short  breathing  pauses  so 
as  to  prevent  him  in  the  first  place  from  establishing 
himself  in  the  village  before  him.  We  knew  that  other- 
wise we  should  have  to  engage  in  costly  street  fighting. 
But  the  Belgians  did  not  attempt  to  establish  them- 
selves, but  disengaged  themselves  from  us  with  astonish- 
ing skill. 

Meanwhile  we  had  been  reenforced.  Our  company 
had  been  somewhat  dispersed,  and  everybody  marched 
with  the  troop  he  chanced  to  find  himself  with.  My 
troop  had  to  stay  in  the  village  to  search  every  house 
systematically  for  soldiers  that  had  been  dispersed 
or  hidden.  During  that  work  we  noticed  that  the  Ger- 
mans were  marching  forward  from  all  directions. 
Field  artfllery,  machine-gun  sections,  etc.,  arrived,  and 
all  of  us  wondered  whence  all  of  this  came  so  quickly. 

There  was  however  no  time  for  long  reflections. 
With  fixed  bayonets  we  went  from  house  to  house, 
from  door  to  door,  and  though  the  harvest  was  very 
meager,  we  were  not  turned  away  quite  empty-handed, 
as  the  inhabitants  had  to  deliver  up  all  privately  owned 
fire-arms,  ammunition,  etc.  The  chief  functionary  of 
the  village  who  accompanied  us,  had  to  explain  to  every 
citizen  that  the  finding  of  arms  after  the  search  would 
lead  to  punishment  by  court-martial.  And  court-mar- 
tial means  —  death. 

After  another  hour  had  passed  we  were  alarmed 
again  by  rifle  and  gun  firing;  a  new  battle  had  begun. 
Whether  the  artillery  was  in  action  on  both  sides  could 
not  be  determined  from  the  village,  but  the  noise  was 
loud  enough,  for  the  air  was  almost  trembling  with  the 


12        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

rumbling,  rolling,  and  growling  of  the  guns  which 
steadily  increased  in  strength.  The  ambulance  col- 
umns were  bringing  in  the  first  wounded ;  orderly  officers 
whizzed  past  us.     War  had  begun  with  full  intensity. 

Darkness  was  falling  before  we  had  finished  search- 
ing all  the  houses.  We  dragged  mattresses,  sacks  of 
straw,  feather  beds,  whatever  we  could  get  hold  of,  to 
the  public  school  and  the  church  where  the  wounded 
were  to  be  accommodated.  They  were  put  to  bed  as 
well  as  it  could  be  done.  Those  first  victims  of  the 
horrible  massacre  of  nations  were  treated  with  touching 
care.  Later  on,  when  we  had  grown  more  accustomed 
to  those  horrible  sights,  less  attention  was  paid  to  the 
wounded. 

The  first  fugitives  now  arrived  from  the  neighboring 
villages.  They  had  probably  walked  for  many  an  hour, 
for  they  looked  tired,  absolutely  exhausted.  There 
were  women,  old,  white-haired  men,  and  children,  all 
mixed  together,  who  had  not  been  able  to  save  any- 
thing but  their  poor  lives.  In  a  perambulator  or  a 
push-cart  those  unfortunate  beings  carried  away  all 
that  the  brutal  force  of  war  had  left  them.  In  marked 
contrast  to  the  fugitives  that  we  had  hitherto  met, 
these  people  were  filled  with  the  utmost  fear,  shiver- 
ing with  fright,  terror-stricken  in  face  of  the  hostile 
world.  As  soon  as  they  beheld  one  of  us  soldiers  they 
were  seized  with  such  a  fear  that  they  seemed  to  crum- 
ple up.  How  different  they  were  from  the  inhabitants 
of  the  village  in  which  we  were,  who  showed  themselves 
kind,  friendly,  and  even  obliging  towards  us.  We 
tried  to  find  out  the  cause  of  that  fear,  and  heard 
that  those  fugitives  had  witnessed  bitter  street  fight- 
ing in  their  village.  They  had  experienced  war,  had 
seen  their  houses  burnt,  their  simple  belongings  perish, 


FIGHTING  IN  BELGIUM  13 

and  had  not  yet  been  able  to  forget  their  streets  filled 
with  dead  and  wounded  soldiers.  It  became  clear  to  us 
that  it  was  not  fear  alone  that  made  these  people  look 
like  the  hunted  quarry;  it  was  hatred,  hatred  against 
us,  the  invaders  who,  as  they  had  to  suppose,  had  fallen 
upon  them  unawares,  had  driven  them  from  their 
home.  But  their  hatred  was  not  only  directed  against 
us,  the  German  soldiers,  nay,  their  own,  the  Belgian 
soldiers,  too,  were  not  spared  by  it. 

We  marched  away  that  very  evening  and  tried  to 
reach  our  section.  When  darkness  fell  the  Belgians 
had  concentrated  still  farther  to  the  rear;  they  were 
already  quite  near  the  fortress  of  Liege.  Many  of  the 
villages  we  passed  were  in  flames ;  the  inhabitants  who 
had  been  driven  away  passed  us  in  crowds ;  there  were 
women  whose  husbands  were  perhaps  also  defending 
their  "  Fatherland,"  children,  old  men  who  were  pushed 
hither  and  thither  and  seemed  to  be  always  in  the 
way.  Without  any  aim,  any  plan,  any  place  in  which 
they  could  rest,  those  processions  of  misery  and  un- 
happiness  crept  past  us  —  the  best  illustration  of  man- 
murdering,  nation-destroying  war!  Again  we  reached 
a  village  which  to  all  appearances  had  once  been  in- 
habited by  a  well-to-do  people,  by  a  contented  little 
humanity.  There  were  nothing  but  ruins  now,  burnt, 
destroyed  houses  and  farm  buildings,  dead  soldiers, 
German  and  Belgian,  and  among  them  several  civilians 
who  had  been  shot  by  sentence  of  the  court-martial. 

Towards  midnight  we  reached  the  German  line  which 
was  trying  to  get  possession  of  a  village  which  was 
already  within  the  fortifications  of  Liege,  and  was  ob- 
stinately defended  by  the  Belgians.  Here  we  had  to 
employ  all  our  forces  to  wrench  from  our  opponent 
house  after  house,  street  after  street.      It  was  not  yet 


14       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

completely  dark  so  that  we  had  to  go  through  that 
terrible  struggle  which  developed  with  all  our  senses 
awake  and  receptive.  It  was  a  hand  to  hand  fight ; 
every  kind  of  weapon  had  to  be  employed ;  the  opponent 
was  attacked  with  the  butt-end  of  the  rifle,  the  knife, 
the  fist,  and  the  teeth.  One  of  my  best  friends  fought 
with  a  gigantic  Belgian;  both  had  lost  their  rifle. 
They  were  pummeling  each  other  with  their  fists.  I 
had  just  finished  with  a  Belgian  who  was  about  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  and  was  going  to  assist  my  friend,  as 
the  Herculean  Belgian  was  so  much  stronger  than  he. 
Suddenly  my  friend  succeeded  with  a  lightning  motion 
in  biting  the  Belgian  in  the  chin.  He  bit  so  deeply 
that  he  tore  away  a  piece  of  flesh  with  his  teeth.  The 
pain  the  Belgian  felt  must  have  been  immense,  for  he 
let  go  his  hold  and  ran  off  screaming  with  terrible  pain. 

All  that  happened  in  seconds.  The  blood  of  the 
Belgian  ran  out  of  my  friend's  mouth ;  he  was  seized 
by  a  horrible  nausea,  an  indescribable  terror,  the  taste 
of  the  warm  blood  nearly  drove  him  insane.  That 
young,  gay,  lively  fellow  of  twenty-four  had  been 
cheated  out  of  his  youth  in  that  night.  He  used  to  be 
the  j oiliest  among  us;  after  that  we  could  never  induce 
him  even  to  smile. 

Whilst  fighting  during  the  night  I  came  for  the 
first  time  in  touch  with  the  butt-end  of  a  Belgian  rifle. 
I  had  a  hand  to  hand  fight  with  a  Belgian  when  an- 
other one  from  behind  hit  me  with  his  rifle  on  the  head 
with  such  force  that  it  drove  my  head  into  the  helmet 
up  to  my  ears.  I  experienced  a  terrific  pain  all  over 
my  head,  doubled  up,  and  lost  consciousness.  When  I 
revived  I  found  myself  with  a  bandaged  head  in  a  barn 
among  other  wounded. 

I  had  not  been  severely  wounded,  but  I  felt  as  if  my 


FIGHTING  IN  BELGIUM  15 

head  was  double  its  normal  size,  and  there  was  a  noise 
in  my  ears  as  of  the  wheels  of  an  express  engine. 

The  other  wounded  and  the  soldiers  of  the  ambulance 
corps  said  that  the  Belgians  had  been  pushed  back  to 
the  fortress ;  we  heard,  however,  that  severe  fighting 
was  still  going  on.  Wounded  soldiers  were  being 
brought  in  continuously,  and  they  told  us  that  the 
Germans  had  already  taken  in  the  first  assault  several 
fortifications  like  outer-forts,  but  that  they  had  not 
been  able  to  maintain  themselves  because  they  had  not 
been  sufficiently  provided  with  artillery.  The  defended 
places  and  works  inside  the  forts  were  still  practically 
completely  intact,  and  so  were  their  garrisons.  The 
forts  were  not  }Tet  ripe  for  assault,  so  that  the  Ger- 
mans had  to  retreat  with  downright  enormous  losses. 
The  various  reports  were  contradictory,  and  it  was  im- 
possible to  get  a  clear  idea  of  what  was  happening. 

Meanwhile  the  artillery  had  begun  to  bombard  the 
fortress,  and  even  the  German  soldiers  were  terror- 
stricken  at  that  bombardment.  The  heaviest  artillery 
was  brought  into  action  against  the  modern  forts  of 
concrete.  Up  to  that  time  no  soldier  had  been  aware 
of  the  existence  of  the  42-centimeter  mortars.  Even 
when  Liege  had  fallen  into  German  hands  we  soldiers 
could  not  explain  to  ourselves  how  it  was  possible  that 
those  enormous  fortifications,  constructed  partly  of  re- 
inforced concrete  of  a  thickness  of  one  to  six  meters, 
could  be  turned  into  a  heap  of  rubbish  after  only  a 
few  hours'  bombardment.  Plaving  been  wounded,  I 
could  of  course  not  take  part  in  those  operations,  but 
my  comrades  told  me  later  on  how  the  various  forts 
were  taken.  Guns  of  all  sizes  were  turned  on  the  forts, 
but  it  was  the  21-  and  42-centimeter  mortars  that  really 
did  the  work.     From  afar  one  could  hear  alrcadv  the 


16       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  AVAR  EXPERIENCE 

approach  of  the  42-centimeter  shell.  The  shell  bored 
its  way  through  the  air  with  an  uncanny,  rushing 
and  hissing  sound  that  was  like  a  long  shrill  whis- 
tling filling  the  whole  atmosphere  for  seconds.  Where 
it  struck  everything  was  destroyed  within  a  radius  of 
several  hundred  yards.  Later  I  have  often  gazed  in 
wonderment  at  those  hecatombs  which  the  42-centime- 
ter mortar  erected  for  itself  on  all  its  journeys.  The 
enormous  air  pressure  caused  by  the  bursting  of  its 
shells  made  it  even  difficult  for  us  Germans  in  the  most 
advanced  positions  to  breathe  for  several  seconds. 
To  complete  the  infernal  row  the  Zeppelins  appeared 
at  night  in  order  to  take  part  in  the  work  of  destruc- 
tion. Suddenly  the  soldiers  would  hear  above  their 
heads  the  whirring  of  the  propellers  and  the  noi^e  of 
the  motors,  well-known  to  most  Germans.  The  Zep- 
pelins came  nearer  and  nearer,  but  not  until  they  were 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  forts  were  they 
discovered  by  our  opponents,  who  immediately  brought 
all  available  searchlights  into  play  in  order  to  search 
the  sky  for  the  dreaded  flying  enemies.  The  whirring 
of  the  propellers  of  the  airships  which  had  been  dis- 
tributed for  work  on  the  various  forts  suddenly  ceased. 
Then,  right  up  in  the  air,  a  blinding  light  appeared, 
the  searchlight  of  the  Zeppelin,  which  lit  up  the  coun- 
try beneath  it  for  a  short  time.  Just  as  suddenly  it 
became  dark  and  quiet  until  a  few  minutes  later,  power- 
ful detonations  brought  the  news  that  the  Zeppelin  had 
dropped  its  "  ballast."  That  continued  for  quite  a 
while,  explosion  followed  explosion,  interrupted  only  by 
small  fiery  clouds,  shrapnel  which  the  Belgian  artillery 
sent  up  to  the  airships,  exploding  in  the  air.  Then 
the  whirring  of  the  prqpellers  began  again,  first  loud 
and  coming  from  near,  from  right  above  our  heads, 


FIGHTING  IN  BELGIUM  17 

then  softer  and  softer  until  the  immense  ship  of  the  air 
had  entirely  disappeared  from  our  view  and  hearing. 

Thus  the  forts  were  made  level  with  the  ground ;  thou- 
sands of  Belgians  were  lying  dead  and  buried  behind 
and  beneath  the  ramparts  and  fortifications.  General 
assault  followed.  Liege  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Ger- 
mans. 

I  was  with  the  ambulance  column  until  the  9th  of 
August  and  by  that  time  had  been  restored  sufficiently 
to  rejoin  my  section  of  the  army.  After  searching  for 
hours  I  found  my  company  camping  in  a  field.  I  missed 
many  a  good  friend ;  my  section  had  lost  sixty-five  men, 
dead  and  wounded,  though  it  had  not  taken  part  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  enemy. 

We  had  been  attached  to  the  newly- formed  18th 
Reserve  Army  Corps  (Hessians)  and  belonged  to 
the  Fourth  Army  which  was  under  the  command  of 
Duke  Albrecht  of  Wurttemberg.  Where  that  army, 
which  had  not  yet  been  formed,  was  to  operate  was 
quite  unknown  to  us  private  soldiers.  We  had  but 
to  follow  to  the  place  where  the  herd  was  to  be 
slaughtered;  what  did  it  matter  where  that  would  be? 
On  the  11th  of  August  we  began  to  march  and  covered 
25-45  miles  every  day.  We  learned  later  on  that  we 
always  kept  close  to  the  Luxemburg  frontier  so  as  to 
cross  it  immediately  should  necessity  arise.  Had  it  not 
been  so  oppressively  hot  we  should  have  been  quite  con- 
tent, for  we  enjoyed  several  days  of  rest  which  braced 
us  up  again. 

On  the  21st  of  August  we  came  in  contact  with  the 
first  German  troops  belonging  to  the  Fourth  Army, 
about  15  miles  to  the  east  of  the  Belgian  town  of  Neuf- 
chateau.  The  battle  of  Neufchateau,  which  lasted 
from  the  22nd  to  the  24th  of  August,  had  already  be- 


18       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

gun.  A  French  army  here  met  with  the  Fourth  Ger- 
man Army,  and  a  murderous  slaughter  began.  As  is 
always  the  case  it  commenced  with  small  skirmishes  of 
advance  guards  and  patrols;  little  after  little  ever- 
growing masses  of  soldiers  took  part  and  when,  in  the 
evening  of  the  22nd  of  August,  we  were  led  into  the 
firing  line,  the  battle  had  already  developed  to  one  of 
the  most  murderous  of  the  world  war.  When  we  ar- 
rived the  French  were  still  in  possession  of  nearly 
three-quarters  of  the  town.  The  artillery  had  set  fire 
to  the  greatest  part  of  Neufchateau,  and  only  the  splen- 
did villas  in  the  western  part  of  the  town  escaped  de- 
struction for  the  time  being.  The  street  fighting  lasted 
the  whole  night.  It  was  only  towards  noon  of  the  23rd 
of  August,  when  the  town  was  in  the  hands  of  thf.  Ger- 
mans, that  one  could  see  the  enormous  losses  that  both 
sides  had  suffered.  The  dwelling-places,  the  cellars, 
the  roads  and  side-walks  were  thickly  covered  with  dead 
and  horribly  wounded  soldiers ;  the  houses  were  ruins, 
gutted,  empty  shells  in  which  scarcely  anything  of  real 
value  had  remained  whole.  Thousands  had  been  made 
beggars  in  a  night  full  of  horrors.  Women  and  chil- 
dren, soldiers  and  citizens  were  lying  just  where  death 
had  struck  them  down,  mixed  together  just  as  the  merci- 
less shrapnel  and  shells  had  sent  them  out  of  life  into 
the  darkness  beyond.  There  had  been  real  impartial- 
ity. There  lay  a  German  soldier  next  to  a  white- 
haired  French  woman,  a  little  Belgian  stripling  whom 
fear  had  driven  out  of  the  house  into  the  street,  lay 
huddled  up  against  the  "  enemy,"  a  German  soldier, 
who  might  have  been  protection  and  safety  for  him. 

Had  we  not  been  shooting  and  stabbing,  murdering 
and  clubbing  as  much  and  as  vigorously  as  we  could  the 
whole  night?     And  yet  there  was  scarcely  one  amongst 


FIGHTING  IN  BELGIUM  19 

us  who  did  not  shed  tears  of  grief  and  emotion  at  the 
spectacles  presenting  themselves.  There  was  for  in- 
stance a  man  whose  age  it  was  difficult  to  discover;  he 
was  lying  dead  before  a  burning  house.  Both  his  legs 
had  been  burnt  up  to  the  knees  by  the  fire  falling  down 
upon  him.  The  wife  and  daughter  of  the  dead  man 
were  clinging  to  him,  and  were  sobbing  so  piteously 
that  one  simply  could  not  bear  it.  Many,  many  of  the 
dead  had  been  burnt  entirely  or  partly ;  the  cattle  were 
burning  in  their  stables,  and  the  wild  bellowing  of 
those  animals  fighting  against  death  by  fire,  inter- 
mingled with  the  crying,  the  moaning,  the  groaning 
and  the  shrieking  of  the  wounded.  But  who  had  the 
time  now  to  bother  about  that?  Everybody  wanted 
help,  everybody  wanted  to  help  himself,  everybody  was 
only  thinking  of  himself  and  his  little  bit  of  life.  "  He 
who  falls  remains  where  he  lies ;  only  he  who  stands 
can  win  victories."  That  one  learns  from  militarism 
and  the  average  soldier  acts  upon  that  principle.  And 
yet  most  soldiers  are  forced  by  circumstances  to  play 
the  role  of  the  good  Samaritan.  People  who  could 
formerly  not  look  upon  blood  or  a  dead  person,  were 
now  bandaging  their  comrades'  arms  and  legs  which  had 
been  amputated  by  shells.  They  did  not  do  it  because 
they  were  impelled  by  the  command  of  their  heart,  but 
because  they  said  to  themselves  that  perhaps  to-mor- 
row already  their  turn  might  come  and  that  they,  too, 
might  want  assistance.  It  is  a  healthy  egotism  which 
makes  men  of  mercy  out  of  those  hardened  people. 

The  French  had  formed  their  lines  again  outside  the 
town  in  the  open.  At  the  moment  when  the  enemy 
evacuated  the  town  an  error  was  made  by  the  Germans 
which  cost  many  hundreds  of  German  soldiers  their 
lives.     The  Germans  had  occupied  the  rest  of  the  town 


20       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

with  such  celerity  that  our  artillery  which  was  pound- 
ing that  quarter  had  not  been  informed  of  the  changed 
situation,  and  was  raining  shell  upon  shell  into  our 
own  ranks.  That  failure  of  our  intelligence  depart- 
ment caused  the  death  of  many  of  our  comrades.  Com- 
pelled by  the  firing  of  the  enemy  and  our  own  artillery 
we  had  finally  to  give  up  part  of  our  gains,  which  later 
on  we  recovered,  again  with  great  sacrifice.  Curiously 
enough,  the  residential  quarter  with  the  villas  I  men- 
tioned before  had  not  suffered  seriously ;  the  Red  Cross 
flag  was  hoisted  on  the  houses  in  which  temporary  hos- 
pitals were  established. 

It  is  here  that  the  Belgian  citizens  are  said  to  have 
mutilated  some  German  wounded  soldiers.  Whether  it 
was  true,  whether  it  was  only  rumored,  as  was  asserted 
also  many  times  by  German  soldiers  who  had  been  in 
the  hospitals,  I  do  not  know.  But  this  I  know,  that 
on  the  24th  of  August  when  the  French  had  executed 
a  general  retreat,  it  was  made  known  in  an  army  order 
that  German  soldiers  had  been  murdered  there  and  that 
the  German  army  could  not  leave  the  scenes  of  those 
shameful  deeds  without  having  first  avenged  their  poor 
comrades.  The  order  was  therefore  given  —  by  the 
leader  of  the  army  —  to  raze  the  town  without  mercy. 
When  later  on  (it  was  in  the  evening  and  we  were  pur- 
suing the  enemy)  we  were  resting  for  a  short  time, 
clouds  of  smoke  in  the  east  showed  that  the  judgment 
had  been  fulfilled.  A  battery  of  artillery  that  had  re- 
mained behind  had  razed  house  after  house.  Revenge 
is  sweet,  also  for  Christian  army  leaders. 

Outside  the  town  the  French  had  reformed  their 
ranks,  and  were  offering  the  utmost  resistance.  But 
they  were  no  match  for  the  German  troops  who  con- 
sisted largely  of  young  and  active  men.     Frenchmen 


FIGHTING  IN  BELGIUM  21 

taken  prisoner  explained  that  it  was  simply  impossible 
to  withstand  an  assault  of  this  war-machine,  when  the 
German  columns  attacked  with  the  bayonet  and  the  cry 
of  "  Hurrah !  hurrah !  "  which  penetrated  to  the  very 
marrow.  I  can  understand  that,  for  we  sometimes  ap- 
peared to  ourselves  to  be  a  good  imitation  of  American 
Indians  who,  like  us,  rushed  upon  their  enemies  with 
shrill  shouts.  After  a  fight  lasting  three  hours  many 
Frenchmen  surrendered,  asking  for  quarter  with  raised 
hands.  Whole  battalions  of  the  enemy  were  thus  cap- 
tured by  us.  Finally,  in  the  night  from  the  23rd  to 
the  24th  of  August,  the  ranks  of  the  enemy  were  thrown 
into  confusion  and  retreated,  first  slowly,  then  flying 
headlong.  Our  opponent  left  whole  batteries,  munition 
columns,  ambulance  columns,  etc. 

I  found  myself  in  the  first  pursuing  section.  The 
roads  we  used  were  again  literally  covered  with  corpses ; 
knapsacks,  rifles,  dead  horses  and  men  were  lying  there 
in  a  wild  jumble.  The  dead  had  been  partly  crushed 
and  pounded  to  a  pulp  by  the  horses  and  vehicles,  an 
indescribably  terrible  spectacle  even  for  the  most 
hardened  mass-murderer.  Dead  and  wounded  were  ly- 
ing to  the  right  and  left  of  the  road,  in  fields,  in  ditches ; 
the  red  trousers  of  the  French  stood  out  distinctly 
against  the  ground;  the  field-gray  trousers  of  the  Ger- 
mans were  however  scarcely  to  be  noticed  and  difficult 
to  discover. 

The  distance  between  ourselves  and  the  fleeing 
Frenchmen  became  greater  and  greater,  and  the  spirit 
of  our  soldiers,  in  spite  of  the  hardships  they  had  un- 
dergone, became  better  and  gayer.  They  joked  and 
sang,  forgot  the  corpses  which  were  still  filling  the 
roads  and  paths,  and  felt  quite  at  ease.  They  had  al- 
ready  accustomed   themselves   to   the  horrible   to   such 


22       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

a  degree  that  they  stepped  over  the  corpses  with  un- 
concern, without  even  making  the  smallest  detour. 
The  experience  of  those  first  few  weeks  of  the  war  had 
already  brutalized  us  completely.  What  was  to  hap- 
pen to  us  if  this  should  continue  for  months  — ?. 


in 


SHOOTING    CIVILIANS    IN    BELGIUM 

At  11  o'clock  all  further  philosophizing  was  put  a 
stop  to ;  we  were  ordered  to  halt,  and  we  were  to  receive 
our  food  from  the  field  kitchen. 

We  were  quite  hungry  and  ate  the  tinned  soup  with 
the  heartiest  of  appetites.  Many  of  our  soldiers  were 
sitting  with  their  dinner-pails  on  the  dead  horses  that 
were  lying  about,  and  were  eating  with  such  pleasure 
and  heartiness  as  if  they  were  home  at  mother's.  Nor 
did  some  corpses  in  the  neighborhood  of  our  improvised 
camp  disturb  us.  There  was  only  a  lack  of  water  and 
after  having  eaten  thirst  began  to  torment  us. 

Soon  afterwards  we  continued  our  march  in  the 
scorching  midday  sun ;  dust  was  covering  our  uni- 
forms and  skin  to  the  depth  of  almost  an  inch.  We 
tried  in  vain  to  be  jolly,  but  thirst  tormented  us  more 
and  more,  and  we  became  weaker  and  weaker  from  one 
quarter  of  an  hour  to  another.  Many  in  our  ranks 
fell  down  exhausted,  and  we  were  simply  unable  to 
move.  So  the  commander  of  our  section  had  no  other 
choice  but  to  let  us  halt  again  if  he  did  not  want  every 
one  of  us  to  drop  out.  Thus  it  happened  that  we 
stayed  behind  a  considerable  distance,  and  were  not 
amongst  the  first  that  were  pursuing  the  French. 

Finally,  towards  four  o'clock,  we  saw  a  village  in 
front  of  us ;  we  began  at  once  to  march  at  a  much 
brisker   pace.     Among   other   things   we   saw   a   farm- 

23 


24       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

cart  on  which  were  several  civilian  prisoners,  appar- 
ently snipers.  There  was  also  a  Catholic  priest  among 
them  who  had,  like  the  others,  his  hands  tied  behind 
his  back  with  a  rope.  Curiosity  prompted  us  to  en- 
quire what  he  had  been  up  to,  and  we  heard  that  he 
had  incited  the  farmers  of  the  village  to  poison  the 
water. 

We  soon  reached  the  village  and  the  first  well  at 
which  we  hoped  to  quench  our  thirst  thoroughly.  But 
that  was  no  easy  matter,  for  a  military  guard  had 
been  placed  before  it  who  scared  us  off  with  the  warn- 
ing, "  Poisoned  " !  Disappointed  and  terribly  embit- 
tered the  soldiers,  half  dead  with  thirst,  gnashed 
their  teeth ;  they  hurried  to  the  next  well,  but  every- 
where the  same  devilish  thing  occurred  —  the  guard 
preventing  them  from  drinking.  In  a  square,  in  the 
middle  of  the  village,  there  was  a  large  village  well 
which  sent,  through  two  tubes,  water  as  clear  as  crys- 
tal into  a  large  trough.  Five  soldiers  were  guarding 
it  and  had  to  watch  that  nobody  drank  of  the  poi- 
soned water.  I  was  just  going  to  march  past  it  with 
my  pal  when  suddenly  the  second,  larger  portion  of 
our  company  rushed  like  madmen  to  the  well.  The 
guards  were  carried  away  by  the  rush,  and  every  one 
now  began  to  drink  the  water  with  the  avidity  of  an 
animal.  All  quenched  their  thirst,  and  not  one  of  us 
became  ill  or  died.  We  heard  later  on  that  the  priest 
had  to  pay  for  it  with  his  death,  as  the  military  au- 
thorities "  knew  "  that  the  water  in  all  the  wells  of 
that  village  was  poisoned  and  that  the  soldiers  had 
only  been  saved  by  a  lucky  accident.  Faithfully  the 
God  of  the  Germans  had  watched  over  us ;  the  captured 
Belgians  did  not  seem  to  be  under  his  protection. 
They  had  to  die. 


SHOOTING  CIVILIANS  IN  BELGIUM  25 

In  most  places  we  passed  at  that  time  we  were 
warned  against  drinking  the  water.  The  natural  con- 
sequence was  that  the  soldiers  began  to  hate  the  popu- 
lation which  they  now  had  to  consider  to  be  their  bit- 
terest enemies.  That  again  aroused  the  worst  in- 
stincts in  some  soldiers.  In  every  army  one  finds  men 
with  the  disposition  of  barbarians,  The  many  mil- 
lions of  inhabitants  in  Germany  or  France  are  not  all 
civilized  people,  much  as  we  like  to  convince  ourselves 
of  the  contrary.  Compulsory  military  service  in  those 
countries  forces  all  without  distinction  into  the  army, 
men  and  monsters.  I  have  often  bitterly  resented  the 
wrong  one  did  to  our  army  in  calling  us  all  barbarians, 
only  because  among  us  —  as,  naturally  also  among  the 
French  and  English  —  there  were  to  be  found  elements 
that  really  ought  to  be  in  the  penitentiary.  I  will  only 
cite  one  example  of  how  we  soldiers  ourselves  punished 
a  wretch  whom  we  caught  committing  a  crime. 

One  evening  —  it  was  dark  already  —  we  reached  a 
small  village  to  the  east  of  the  town  of  Bertrix,  and 
there,  too,  found  "  poisoned "  water.  We  halted  in 
the  middle  of  the  village.  I  was  standing  before  a 
house  with  a  low  window,  through  which  one  could  see 
the  interior.  In  the  miserable  poverty-stricken  work- 
ing man's  dwelling  we  observed  a  woman  who  clung  to 
her  children  as  if  afraid  they  would  be  torn  from  her. 
Though  we  felt  very  bitter  on  account  of  the  want 
of  water,  every  one  of  us  would  have  liked  to  help  the 
poor  woman.  Some  of  us  were  just  going  to  sacri- 
fice our  little  store  of  victuals  and  to  say  a  few  com- 
forting words  to  the  woman,  when  all  at  once  a  stone 
as  big  as  a  fist  was  thrown  through  the  window-pane 
into  the  room  and  hurt  a  little  girl  in  the  right  hand. 
There  were  sincere  cries  of  indignation,  but  at  the  same 


26       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

moment  twenty  hands  at  least  laid  hold  of  the  wretch, 
a  reservist  of  our  company,  and  gave  him  such  a  hid- 
ing as  to  make  him  almost  unconscious.  If  officers 
and  other  men  had  not  interfered  the  fellow  would  have 
been  lynched  there  and  then.  He  was  to  be  placed  be- 
fore a  court-martial  later  on,  but  it  never  came  to  that. 
He  was  drowned  in  the  river  at  the  battle  of  the  Meuse. 
Many  soldiers  believed  he  drowned  himself,  because  he 
was  not  only  shunned  by  his  fellow  soldiers,  but  was  also 
openly  despised  by  them. 

We  were  quartered  on  that  village  and  had  to  live 
in  a  barn.  I  went  with  some  pals  into  the  village  to 
buy  something  to  eat.  At  a  farmer's  house  we  got 
ham,  bread,  and  wine,  but  not  for  money.  The  people 
positively  refused  to  take  our  money  as  they  regarded 
us  as  their  guests,  so  they  said ;  only  we  were  not  to 
harm  them.  Nevertheless  we  left  them  an  adequate 
payment  in  German  money.  Later  on  we  found  the 
same  situation  in  many  other  places.  Everywhere  peo- 
ple were  terribly  frightened  of  us ;  they  began  to  trem- 
ble almost  when  a  German  soldier  entered  their  house. 

Four  of  us  had  formed  a  close  alliance ;  we  had  prom- 
ised each  other  to  stick  together  and  assist  each  other 
in  every  danger.  We  often  also  visited  the  citizens  in 
their  houses,  and  tried  to  the  best  of  our  ability  to  com- 
fort the  sorely  tried  people  and  talk  them  out  of  their 
fear  of  us.  Without  exception  we  found  them  to  be 
lovable,  kindly,  and  good  people  who  soon  became  con- 
fidential and  free  of  speech  when  they  noticed  that  we 
were  really  their  friends.  But  when,  at  leaving,  we 
wrote  with  chalk  on  the  door  of  their  houses  "  Bitte 
schonen,  hier  wohnen  brave,  gute,  Leute!"  (Please 
spare,  here  live  good  and  decent  people)  their  joy  and 
thankfulness  knew  no  bounds.     If  so  much  bad  blood 


SHOOTING  CIVILIANS  IN  BELGIUM  27 

was  created,  if  so  many  incidents  happened  that  led  to 
the  shooting  by  court-martial  of  innumerable  Belgians, 
the  difference  of  language  and  the  mistakes  arising 
therefrom  were  surely  not  the  least  important  causes ; 
of  that  I  and  many  others  of  my  comrades  became  con- 
vinced during  that  time  in  Belgium.  But  the  at  first 
systematically  nourished  suspicion  against  the  "  enemy," 
too,  was  partly  responsible  for  it. 

In  the  night  we  continued  our  march,  after  having 
been  attached  to  the  21-centimeter  mortar  battery  of 
the  9th  Regiment  of  Foot  Artillery  which  had  just  ar- 
rived ;  we  were  not  only  to  serve  as  covering  troops  for 
that  battery,  but  were  also  to  help  it  place  those  giants 
in  position  when  called  upon.  The  gun  is  transported 
apart  from  the  carriage  on  a  special  wagon.  Gun-car- 
riage and  guns  are  drawn  each  by  six  horses.  Those 
horses,  which  are  only  used  by  the  foot  artillery,  are  the 
best  and  strongest  of  the  German  army.  And  yet  even 
those  animals  are  often  unable  to  do  the  work  required 
of  them,  so  that  all  available  men,  seventy  or  eighty  at 
times,  have  to  help  transport  the  gun  with  ropes  spe- 
cially carried  for  that  purpose.  That  help  is  chiefly 
resorted  to  when  the  guns  leave  the  road  to  be  placed  in 
firing  position.  In  order  to  prevent  the  wheels  from 
sinking  into  the  soil,  other  wheels,  half  a  yard  wide, 
are  attached  round  them. 

These  guns  are  high-angle  guns,  i.  e.,  their  shot  rises 
into  the  air  for  several  thousand  yards,  all  according 
to  the  distance  of  the  spot  to  be  hit,  and  then  drops  at 
a  great  angle.  That  is  the  reason- why  neither  hill  nor 
mountain  can  protect  an  enemy  battery  placed  behind 
those  elevations.  At  first  the  French  had  almost  no 
transportable  heavy  artillery  so  that  it  was  quite  im- 
possible for  them  to  fight  successfully  against  our  guns 


28       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

of  large  caliber.  Under  those  conditions  the  German 
gunners,  of  course,  felt  themselves  to  be  top-dog,  and 
decorated  their  21-centimeter  guns  with  inscriptions 
like  the  following,  "  Here  declarations  of  war  are  still 
being  accepted." 

We  felt  quite  at  ease  with  the  artillery,  and  were  still 
passably  fresh  when  we  halted  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, though  we  had  been  marching  since  two  o'clock. 
Near  our  halting  place  we  found  a  broken  German 
howitzer,  and  next  to  it  two  dead  soldiers.  When  firing, 
a  shell  had  burst  in  the  gun  destroying  it  entirely. 
Two  men  of  the  crew  had  been  killed  instantly  and  some 
had  been  seriously  wounded  by  the  flying  pieces.  We 
utilized  the  pause  to  bury  the  two  dead  men,  put  both  of 
them  in  one  grave,  placed  both  their  helmets  on  the 
grave,  and  wrote  on  a  board :  "  Here  rest  two  German 
Artillerymen." 

We  had  to  proceed,  and  soon  reached  the  town  of 
Bertrix.  Some  few  houses  to  the  left  and  right  of  the 
road  were  burning  fiercely;  we  soon  got  to  know  that 
they  had  been  set  alight  because  soldiers  marching  past 
were  said  to  have  been  shot  at  from  those  houses.  Be- 
fore one  of  these  houses  a  man  and  his  wife  and  their 
son,  a  boy  of  15  or  16,  lay  half  burnt  to  cinders;  all 
had  been  covered  with  straw.  Three  more  civilians  lay 
dead  in  the  same  street. 

We  had  marched  past  some  more  houses  when  all  at 
once  shots  rang  out ;  they  had  been  shooting  from  some 
house,  and  four  of  our  soldiers  had  been  wounded.  For 
a  short  while  there  was  confusion.  The  house  from 
which  the  shots  must  have  come  was  soon  surrounded, 
and  hand  grenades  were  thrown  through  all  the  windows 
into  the  interior.  In  an  instant  all  the  rooms  were  in 
flames.     The  exploding  hand  grenades  caused  such  an 


SHOOTING  CIVILIANS  IN  BELGIUM  29 

enormous  air  pressure  that  all  the  doors  were  blown 
from  their  hinges  and  the  inner  walls  torn  to  shreds. 
Almost  at  the  same  time,  five  men  in  civilian  clothes 
rushed  into  the  street  and  asked  for  quarter  with  up- 
lifted hands.  They  were  seized  immediately  and  taken 
to  the  officers,  who  formed  themselves  into  a  tribunal 
within  a  few  minutes.  Ten  minutes  later  sentence  had 
already  been  executed ;  five  strong  men  lay  on  the 
ground,  blindfolded  and  their  bodies  riddled  by  bullets. 
Six  of  us  had  in  each  of  the  five  cases  to  execute  the 
sentence,  and  unfortunately  I,  too,  belonged  to  those 
thirty  men.  The  condemned  man  whom  my  party  of 
six  had  to  shoot  was  a  tall,  lean  man,  about  forty  years 
of  age.  He  did  not  wince  for  a  moment  when  they 
blindfolded  him.  In  a  garden  of  a  house  nearby  he  was 
placed  with  his  back  against  the  house,  and  after  our 
captain  had  told  us  that  it  was  our  duty  to  aim  well 
so  as  to  end  the  tragedy  quickly,  we  took  up  our  po- 
sition six  paces  from  the  condemned  one.  The  sergeant 
commanding  us  had  told  us  before  to  shoot  the  con- 
demned man  through  the  chest.  We  then  formed  two 
lines,  one  behind  the  other.  The  command  was  given 
to  load  and  secure,  and  we  pushed  five  cartridges  into 
the  rifle.  Then  the  command  rang  out,  "  Get  ready!  " 
The  first  line  knelt,  the  second  stood  up.  We  held  our 
rifles  in  such  a  position  that  the  barrel  pointed  in  front 
of  us  whilst  the  butt-end  rested  somewhere  near  the  hip. 
At  the  command,  "  Aim !  "  we  slowly  brought  our  rifles 
into  shooting  position,  grasped  them  firmly,  pressed  the 
plate  of  the  butt-end  against  the  shoulder  and,  with  our 
cheek  on  the  butt-end,  we  clung  convulsively  to  the 
neck  of  the  rifle.  Our  right  forefinger  was  on  the  trig- 
ger, the  sergeant  gave  us  about  half  a  minute  for  aim- 
ing before  commanding,  "Fire!" 


30       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

Even  to-day  I  cannot  say  whether  our  victim  fell  dead 
on  the  spot  or  how  many  of  the  six  bullets  hit  him.  I 
ran  about  all  day  long  like  a  drunken  man,  and  re- 
proached myself  most  bitterly  with  having  played  the 
executioner.  For  a  long  time  I  avoided  speaking  about 
it  with  fellow-soldiers,  for  I  felt  guilty.  And  yet  — 
what  else  could  we  soldiers  do  but  obey  the  order? 

Already  in  the  preceding  night  there  had  been  en- 
counters at  Bertrix  between  the  German  military  and 
the  population.  Houses  were  burning  in  every  part  of 
the  town.  In  the  market  place  there  was  a  great  heap 
of  guns  and  revolvers  of  all  makes.  At  the  clergy- 
man's house  they  had  found  a  French  machine-gun  and 
ammunition,  whereupon  the  clergyman  and  his  female 
cook  had  been  arrested  and,  I  suppose,  placed  immedi- 
ately before  a  court-martial. 

Under  those  conditions  we  were  very  glad  to  get  out 
of  Bertrix  again.  We  marched  on  in  the  afternoon. 
After  a  march  of  some  3  miles  we  halted,  and  received 
food  from  the  field  kitchen.  But  this  time  we  felt  no 
appetite.  The  recollection  of  the  incidents  of  the  morn- 
ing made  all  of  us  feel  so  depressed  that  the  meal  turned 
out  a  real  funeral  repast.  Silently  we  set  in  motion 
again,  and  camped  in  the  open  in  the  evening,  as  we 
were  too  tired  to  erect  tents. 

It  was  there  that  all  discipline  went  to  pieces  for  the 
first  time.  The  officers'  orders  to  put  up  tents  were 
not  heeded  in  the  slightest  degree.  The  men  were  dog- 
tired,  and  suffered  the  officers  to  command  and  chatter 
as  much  as  they  liked.  Every  one  wrapped  himself  up 
in  his  cloak,  lay  down  where  he  was,  and  as  soon  as  one 
had  laid  down  one  was  asleep.  The  officers  ran  about 
like  mad  shouting  Avith  redoubled  energy  their  com- 
mands at  the  exhausted  soldiers ;  in  vain.     The  officers, 


SHOOTING  CIVILIANS  IN  BELGIUM  SI 

of  course  had  gone  through  the  whole  performance  on 
horseback  and,  apparently,  did  not  feel  sufficiently  tired 
to  go  to  sleep.  When  their  calling  and  shouting  had  no 
effect  they  had  to  recourse  to  personal  physical  exertion 
and  began  to  shake  us  up.  But  as  soon  as  one  of  us 
was  awake  the  one  before  had  gone  to  sleep  again. 
Thus  for  a  while  we  heard  the  exhortation,  "  I  say, 
you !  Get  up !  Fall  in  line  for  putting  up  tents !  " 
Whereupon  one  turned  contentedly  on  the  other  side 
and  snoozed  on.  They  tried  to  shake  me  awake,  too, 
but  after  having  sent  some  vigorous  curses  after  the 
lieutenant  —  there  was  no  lack  of  cursing  on  either  side 
that  evening  —  I  continued  to  sleep  the  sleep  of  the 
just. 

For  the  first  time  blind  discipline  had  failed.  The 
human  body  was  so  exhausted  that  it  was  simply  unable 
to  play  any  longer  the  role  of  the  obedient  dog. 


IV 

GERMAN    SOLDIERS    AND    BELGIAN    CIVILIANS 

The  march  had  made  us  very  warm,  and  the  night 
was  cold.  We  shivered  all  over,  and  one  after  the 
other  had  to  rise  in  order  to  warm  himself  by  moving 
about.  There  was  no  straw  to  be  had,  and  our  thin 
cloaks  offered  but  little  protection.  The  officers  slept 
in  sleeping  bags  and  woolen  blankets. 

Gradually  all  had  got  up,  for  the  dew  had  wetted 
our  clothing;  things  were  very  uncomfortable.  The 
men  stood  about  in  groups  and  criticized  the  incidents 
of  the  preceding  day.  The  great  majority  were  of  the 
opinion  that  we  should  tell  the  officers  distinctly  that 
in  future  it  would  not  be  so  easy  for  them  to  work  their 
deeds  of  oppression.  One  of  the  older  reservists  pro- 
posed that  we  should  simply  refuse  in  future  to  exe- 
cute a  command  to  shoot  a  condemned  man ;  he  thought 
that  if  all  of  us  clung  together  nothing  could  happen 
to  us.  However,  we  begged  him  to  be  careful,  for  if 
such  expressions  were  reported  they  would  shoot  him 
for  sedition  without  much  ado.  Nevertheless  all  of  us 
were  probably  agreed  that  the  reservist  had  spoken 
exactly  what  was  in  our  minds.  The  bitter  feeling  was 
general,  but  we  would  not  and  could  not  commit  any 
imprudent  action.  We  had  learned  enough  in  those  few 
days  of  the  war  to  know  that  war  brutalizes  and  that 
brutal  force  can  no  longer  distinguish  right  from  wrong ; 

and  with  that  force  we  had  to  reckon. 

32 


GERMAN  SOLDIERS  AND  BELGIAN*  CIVILIANS         33 

Meanwhile  the  time  had  come  to  march  on.  Before 
that  we  had  to  drink  our  coffee  and  arrange  our  bag- 
gage. When  we  were  ready  to  march  the  captain  gave 
us  a  speech  in  which  he  referred  to  the  insubordination 
of  the  night  before.  "  I  take  it,"  he  said,  "  that  it  was 
the  result  of  your  stupidity.  For  if  I  were  not  con- 
vinced of  that  I  should  send  you  all  before  a  court- 
martial,  and  all  of  you  would  be  made  unhappy  for  the 
rest  of  your  lives.  But  in  future,"  he  continued  after 
a  short  reflection,  "  I  will  draw  the  reins  so  tightly  that 
incidents  like  these  can  never  happen  again,  and  the 
devil  must  be  in  it  if  I  can  not  master  you.  An  order 
is  an  order,  even  if  one  imagines  himself  too  tired." 

We  joined  the  mortar  battery  again,  and  continued 
our  march.  The  country  we  were  passing  was  rather 
dreary  and  monotonous  so  that  that  part  of  our  march 
offered  few  interesting  changes.  The  few  tiny  villages 
we  came  through  were  all  abandoned  by  their  inhabi- 
tants, and  the  poverty-stricken  dwellings  were  mostly 
devastated.  However,  we  met  long  lines  of  refugees. 
These  people  had  as  a  rule  fled  with  the  French  army, 
and  were  returning  now,  only  to  find  their  homes  de- 
stroyed by  the  brutal  hand  of  war.  After  a  lengthy 
march  broken  by  rests  and  bivouacs  we  neared  the  fairly 
large  village  of  Sugny  on  the  Belgo-French  frontier 
just  inside  Belgian  territory. 

It  was  about  noon,  and  though  the  steadily  increas- 
ing thunder  of  guns  pointed  to  the  development  of  an- 
other battle,  we  hoped  to  be  able  to  stay  at  the  place 
during  the  night.  We  entered  it  towards  one  o'clock, 
and  were  again  quartered  in  a  large  barn.  Most  of 
the  soldiers  refused  the  food  from  the  field-kitchen,  and 
"  requisitioned  "  eggs,  chicken,  geese,  and  even  small 
pigs,    and    soon    general    cooking    was    in    full    swing. 


34.       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

Everywhere  the  pots  were  steaming.  Unfortunately 
most  had  taken  the  animals  and  foodstuffs  from  the 
inhabitants  without  paying  for  them. 

Several  soldiers  arrived  with  barrels  and  bottles  of 
wine,  which  were  at  once  beheaded  and  emptied  in  spite 
of  the  warnings  and  admonitions  of  the  wiser  amongst 
us.  It  naturally  followed  that  several  sergeants  and 
men  were  soon  almost  helplessly  drunk.  The  proprietor 
of  "  our  "  barn  had  three  medium-sized  pigs  left.  One 
of  those  intoxicated  sergeants  attempted  to  kill  one  of 
the  pigs  with  a  blunt  pocket-knife.  He  had  tormented 
the  poor  beast  almost  to  death  when  some  sober  soldiers 
caught  him  in  the  act.  The  animal  was  killed  by  a  shot 
through  the  head,  and  the  sergeant  had  to  go  to  sleep 
at  once.  But  that  was  only  one  incident  of  many,  and 
not  at  all  the  worst  one.  The  inhabitants  of  Sugny 
had  to  suffer  much  from  the  drunkenness  of  our  men. 
The  open  and  secret  plundering  of  gardens,  stables 
and  houses  was  quite  a  common  thing,  and  as  the  sol- 
diers were  practically  left  to  do  what  they  pleased,  no 
matter  what  happened  or  how  many  complaints  were 
made,  matters  could  naturally  not  improve. 

The  people  of  Sugny  were  to  be  pitied.  First  they 
had  been  plundered  by  the  flying  French  soldiers,  the 
allies  of  the  Belgians,  who  had  taken  along  with  them 
everything  they  could  get  together  in  a  hurry,  and  now 
the  Germans  were  acting  in  no  better  Avay. 

In  a  family  of  seven  we  were  told  that  the  French 
had  taken  away  all  the  bread  and  meat.  They  had 
gone  through  all  the  cupboards  and  shelves,  and  had 
even  stolen  the  gold  watches  belonging  to  the  daughters 
of  the  house.  These  and  similar  tales  we  heard  from 
several  families  of  the  place,  and  what  at  first  we  did 
not  think  possible  on  our  side  we  now  beheld  with  our 


GERMAN  SOLDIERS  AND  BELGIAN  CIVILIANS         35 

own  eyes  — even  our  well-trained  soldiers  robbed,  pil- 
laged, and  stole.  War  makes  no  difference  between 
friend  and  foe. 

The  roaring  of  the  guns,  which  could  be  heard  very 
distinctly,  kept  the  inhabitants  in  constant  fear  and 
excitement,  so  that  we  were  finally  quite  able  to  under- 
stand why  those  people  prayed  to  God  to  be  so  kind  as 
to  give  victory  to  the  Germans.  An  old  inn-keeper  ex- 
plained to  me  in  fairly  fluent  German :  "  You  see  it  is 
not  that  we  are  for  Germany.  Heaven  forbid !  We 
are  just  Belgians  and  are  so  accustomed  to  it  that  we 
would  rather  remain  Belgians  to  the  end  of  our  lives. 
But  if  the  Germans  had  to  retreat  now,  the  French 
would  come  again  and  our  village  would  again  become 
the  scene  of  battle.  The  little  left  to  us  would  then  be 
a  prey  to  the  flames.  Therefore  the  Germans  must 
win."     And  then  he  began  praying  again. 

That  part  of  the  country  had  twice  harbored  the 
French,  and  now  we  Germans  were  there.  That  the 
population  suffered  from  want  and  hunger  was  not  to 
be  wondered  at,  and  often  we  divided  our  rations  with 
the  severely  tried  people.  Myself  and  two  mates  had 
given  our  "  iron  ration  "  (preserved  meat  and  vege- 
tables and  a  bag  of  biscuits)  to  a  woman  "  blessed  " 
with  eight  children.  At  the  call  we  could  not  show  our 
"  iron  one,"  so  we  each  of  us  had  to  mount  guard  twice 
as  a  punishment  for  that  feeble  proof  of  our  charity. 
Our  half-file  leader,  Lieutenant  Spahn,  expressed  the 
opinion  that  pity  was  idiocy,  and  if  the  woman  had 
eight  children  it  was  her  own  concern.  Then  he  con- 
cluded literally  with  great  emphasis,  '"  In  war  everybody 
is  his  own  nearest  neighbor,  even  if  all  around  us  die  in  a 
ditch." 

Another  soldier  got  fourteen  days'  close  confinement. 


36       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

He  was  on  his  way  with  bread  for  a  hungry  poor  fam- 
ily, and  had  in  his  arms  six  of  those  little  army  loaves 
which  he  had  begged  from  the  soldiers.  He  was  met 
by  that  same  Lieutenant  Spahn  who  was  in  company 
of  some  sergeants.  When  Spahn  asked  him  where  he 
was  taking  the  bread  the  sapper  replied  that  he  was  on 
his  way  to  a  poor  family  that  was  really  starving.  The 
lieutenant  then  ordered  him  to  take  the  bread  immedi- 
ately to  the  company.  Thereupon  he  overwhelmed  the 
soldier  with  all  the  "  military  "  expressions  he  could 
think  of,  like,  "  Are  you  mad?  "  "  Donkey!  "  "  Silly 
ass  ?  "  "  Duffer !  "  "  Idiot !  "  etc.  When  the  soldier 
showed  nevertheless  no  sign  of  confusion,  but  started  to 
proceed  on  his  way,  the  lieutenant  roared  out  the  order 
again,  whereupon  the  soldier  turned  round,  thvew  the 
bread  before  the  feet  of  Lieutenant  Spahn,  and  said 
quietly :  "  The  duffers  and  idiots  have  to  shed  their 
blood  to  preserve  also  your  junker  family  from  the 
misery  that  has  been  brought  upon  this  poor  popula- 
tion." 

That  the  sapper  got  only  two  weeks  of  close  confine- 
ment for  "  unmannerly  conduct  towards  a  superior  " 
with  aggravating  circumstances,  was  a  wonder;  he  had 
indeed  got  off  cheaply. 

According  to  martial  law  he  had  to  work  off  his  pun- 
ishment in  the  following  manner :  When  his  company 
went  to  rest  in  the  evening,  or  after  a  fight  or  a  march, 
the  man  had  to  report  himself  every  day  for  two  weeks 
at  the  local  or  camp  guard.  While  the  company  was 
resting  and  the  men  could  move  about  freely,  he  had  to 
be  in  the  guard  room  which  he  could  only  leave  to  do  his 
needs,  and  then  only  by  permission  of  the  sergeant  on 
guard,  and  in  company  of  a  soldier  belonging  to  the 
guard.     He  was  not  allowed  to  smoke  or  read  or  con- 


GERMAN  SOLDIERS  AND  BELGIAN  CIVILIANS         37 

verse  or  speak,  received  his  rations  from  the  guard,  and 
had  to  stay  in  the  guard-room  until  his  company 
marched  off.  Besides  that  he  was  tied  to  a  tree  or 
some  other  object  for  fully  two  hours  every  day.  He 
was  fettered  with  ropes  and  had  to  spend  those  two 
hours  standing,  even  if  he  had  marched  30  miles  or  had 
risked  his  life  in  a  fight  for  the  same  "  Fatherland  "  that 
bound  him  in  fetters. 

The  resentment  continued  to  grow  and,  in  consequence 
of  the  many  severe  punishments  that  were  inflicted,  had 
reached  such  a  height  that  most  soldiers  refused  to  fet- 
ter their  comrades.  I,  too,  refused,  and  when  I  con- 
tinued my  refusals  in  spite  of  repeated  orders  I  was 
likewise  condemned  to  two  weeks  of  close  confinement 
as  an  "  entirely  impenitent  sinner,"  for  "not  obeying 
an  order  given  "  and  for  "  persistent  disobedience." 


THE    HORRORS    OF    STREET    FIGHTING 

We  left  Sugny  the  next  morning,  and  an  hour  later 
we  crossed  the  Belgo-French  frontier.  Here,  too,  we 
had  to  give  three  cheers.  The  frontier  there  runs 
through  a  wood,  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  wood  we 
placed  the  21-cm.  mortars  in  position. 

Our  troops  were  engaged  with  the  rear-guard  of  the 
enemy  near  the  French  village  of  Vivier-au-Court.  We 
were  brought  in  to  reinforce  them,  and  after  a  five 
hours'  fight  the  last  opponents  had  retired  as  far  as  the 
Meuse.  Vivier-au-Court  had  hardly  suffered  at  all 
when  we  occupied  it  towards  noon.  Our  company 
halted  again  here  to  wait  for  the  mortar  battery. 

Meanwhile  we  walked  through  the  village  to  find  some 
eatables.  After  visiting  several  houses  we  came  upon 
the  family  of  a  teacher.  Father  and  son  were  both 
soldiers  ;  two  daughters  of  about  twenty  and  twenty-two 
were  alone  with  their  mother.  The  mother  was  ex- 
tremely shy,  and  all  the  three  women  were  crying  when 
we  entered  the  home.  The  eldest  daughter  received  us 
with  great  friendliness  and,  to  our  surprise,  in  faultless 
German.  We  endeavored  to  pacify  the  women,  begging 
them  not  to  cry ;  we  assured  them  again  and  again  that 
we  would  not  harm  them,  and  told  them  all  kinds  of 
merry  stories  to  turn  their  thoughts  to  other  things. 

One  of  my  mates  related  that  in  a  fight  in  the  morn- 
ing, we  had  lost  seven  men  and  that  several  on  our  side 

had  been  wounded.     That  only  increased  the  women's 

38 


THE  HORRORS  OF  STREET  FIGHTING  39 

excitement,  a  thing  we  really  could  not  understand.  At 
last  one  of  the  girls,  who  had  been  the  first  one  to  com- 
pose herself,  explained  to  us  why  they  were  so  much 
excited.  The  girl  had  been  at  a  boarding  school  at 
Charlottenburg  (Germany)  for  more  than  two  years, 
and  her  brother,  who  worked  in  Berlin  as  a  civil  engi- 
neer, had  taken  a  holiday  for  three  months  after  her 
graduation  in  order  to  accompany  his  sister  home. 
Both  had  liked  living  in  Germany,  it  was  only  the  sud- 
den outbreak  of  war  that  had  prevented  the  young 
engineer  from  returning  to  Berlin.  He  had  to  enter  the 
French  army,  and  belonged  to  the  same  company  in 
which  his  father  was  an  officer  of  the  reserve. 

After  a  short  interval  the  girl  continued :  "  My 
father  and  brother  were  here  only  this  morning. 
They  have  fought  against  you.  It  may  have  been  one 
of  their  bullets  which  struck  your  comrades  down.  O, 
how  terrible  it  is !  Now  they  are  away  —  they  who 
had  only  feelings  of  respect  and  friendship  for  the 
Germans  —  and  as  long  as  the  Germans  are  between 
them  and  us  we  shall  not  be  able  to  know  whether  they 
are  dead  or  alive.  Who  is  it  that  has  this  terrible  war, 
this  barbaric  crime  on  his  conscience?"  Tears  were 
choking  her  speech,  and  our  own  eyes  did  not  remain 
dry.  All  desire  to  eat  had  gone;  after  a  silent  pressing 
of  hands  we  slunk  away. 

We  remained  in  the  village  till  the  evening,  meanwhile 
moving  about  freely.  In  the  afternoon  nine  men  of  my 
company  were  arrested ;  it  was  alleged  against  them 
that  they  had  laid  hands  on  a  woman.  They  were  dis- 
armed and  kept  at  the  local  guard-house;  the  same  thing 
happened  to  some  men  of  the  infantry.  Seven  men  of 
my  company  returned  in  the  evening;  what  became  of 
the  other  two  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  out. 


40        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

At  that  time  a  great  tobacco  famine  reigned  amongst 
us  soldiers.  I  know  that  one  mark  and  more  was  paid 
for  a  single  cigarette,  if  any  could  be  got  at  all.  At 
Vivier-au-Court  there  was  only  one  tobacco  store  run 
by  a  man  employed  by  the  state.  I  have  seen  that  man 
being  forced  by  sergeants  at  the  point  of  the  pistol  to 
deliver  his  whole  store  of  tobacco  for  a  worthless  order 
of  requisition.  The  "  gentlemen  "  later  on  sold  that 
tobacco  for  half  a  mark  a  packet. 

Towards  the  evening  we  marched  off,  and  got  the 
mortar  battery  in  a  new  position  from  where  the  ene- 
my's positions  on  the  Meuse  were  bombarded. 

After  a  short  march  we  engaged  the  French  to  the 
northeast  of  Donchery.  On  this  side  of  the  Meuse  the 
enemy  had  only  his  rear-guard,  whose  task  was  to  cover 
the  crossing  of  the  main  French  armies,  a  movement 
which  was  almost  exclusively  effected  at  Sedan  and  Don- 
chery. We  stuck  close  to  the  heels  of  our  opponents, 
who  did  not  retreat  completely  till  darkness  began  to 
fall.  The  few  bridges  left  did  not  allow  him  to  with- 
draw his  forces  altogether  as  quickly  as  his  interest 
demanded.  Thus  it  came  about  that  an  uncommonly 
murderous  nocturnal  street  fight  took  place  in  Don- 
chery which  was  burning  at  every  corner.  The  French 
fought  with  immense  energy ;  an  awful  slaughter  was  the 
result.  Man  against  man !  That  "  man  against 
man !  "  is  the  most  terrible  thing  I  have  experienced  in 
war.  Nobody  can  tell  afterwards  how  many  he  has 
killed.  You  have  gripped  your  opponent,  who  is  some- 
times weaker,  sometimes  stronger  than  yourself.  In  the 
light  of  the  burning  houses  you  observe  that  the  white 
of  his  eyes  has  turned  red ;  his  mouth  is  covered  with  a 
thick  froth.  With  head  uncovered,  with  disheveled 
hair,  the  uniform  unbuttoned  and  mostly  ragged,  you 


THE  HORRORS  OF  STREET  FIGHTING  41 

stab,  hew,  scratch,  bite  and  strike  about  you  like  a  wild 
animal.  It  means  life  or  death.  You  fight  for  your 
life.  No  quarter  is  given.  You  only  hear  the  gasping, 
groaning,  jerky  breathing.  You  only  think  of  your 
own  life,  of  death,  of  home.  In  feverish  haste,  as  in  a 
whirlwind,  old  memories  are  rushing  through  your  mind. 
Yet  you  get  more  excited  from  minute  to  minute,  for  ex- 
haustion tries  to  master  you ;  but  that  must  not  be  — 
not  now !  And  again  the  fight  is  renewed ;  again  there 
is  hewing,  stabbing,  biting.  Without  rifle,  without  any 
weapon  in  a  life  and  death  struggle.  You  or  I.  I? 
I?  —  Never!  you!  The  exertion  becomes  superhuman. 
Now  a  thrust,  a  vicious  bite,  and  you  are  the  victor. 
Victor  for  the  moment,  for  already  the  next  man,  who 
has  just  finished  off  one  of  your  mates,  is  upon  you  — . 
You  suddenly  remember  that  you  have  a  dagger  about 
you.  After  a  hasty  fumbling  you  find  it  in  the  pre- 
scribed place.  A  swift  movement  and  the  dagger  buries 
itself  deeply  in  the  body  of  the  other  man. 

Onward !  onward !  new  enemies  are  coming  up,  real 
enemies.  How  clearly  the  thought  suddenly  flashes  on 
you  that  that  man  is  your  enemy,  that  he  is  seeking  to 
take  your  life,  that  he  bites,  strikes,  and  scratches,  tries 
to  force  you  down  and  plant  his  dagger  in  your  heart. 
Again  you  use  your  dagger.  Thank  heavens!  He  is 
down.  Saved !  —  Still,  you  must  have  that  dagger 
back !  You  pull  it  out  of  his  chest.  A  jet  of  warm 
blood  rushes  out  of  the  gaping  wound  and  strikes  your 
face.  Human  blood,  warm  human  blood!  You  shake 
yourself,  horror  strikes  you  for  only  a  few  seconds. 
The  next  one  approaches ;  again  you  have  to  defend 
your  skin.  Again  and  again  the  mad  murdering  is 
repeated,  all  night  long  — 

Finally,  towards  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  rest 


42        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

of  the  French  surrendered  after  some  companies  of  in- 
fantry had  occupied  two  roads  leading  to  the  bridges. 
When  the  French  on  the  other  side  became  aware  of  this 
they  blew  up  the  bridges  without  considering  their  own 
troops  who  were  still  on  them.  Germans  and  French- 
men were  tossed  in  the  air,  men  and  human  limbs  were 
sent  to  the  sky,  friend  and  foe  found  a  watery  grave  in 
the  Meuse. 

One  could  now  survey  with  some  calm  the  scene  of 
the  mighty  slaughter.  Dead  lay  upon  dead,  it  was 
misery  to  behold  them,  and  above  and  around  them  all 
there  were  flames  and  a  thick,  choking  smoke.  But  one 
was  already  too  brutalized  to  feel  pity  at  the  spectacle ; 
the  feeling  of  humanity  had  been  blown  to  all  the  winds. 
The  groaning  and  crying,  the  pleading  of  the  wounded 
did  not  touch  one.  Some  Catholic  nuns  were  lying  dead 
before  their  convent.     You  saw  it  and  passed  on. 

The  only  building  that  had  escaped  destruction  was 
the  barracks  of  the  25th  regiment  of  French  dragoons. 
However,  we  had  not  much  time  to  inspect  things,  for 
at  seven  o'clock  the  French  artillery  began  already 
sending  shell  after  shell  into  the  village.  We  intrenched 
behind  a  thick  garden  wall,  immediately  behind  the 
Meuse.  Our  side  of  the  Meuse  was  flat,  the  opposite 
one  went  up  steeply.  There  the  French  infantry  had 
intrenched  themselves,  having  built  three  positions  on 
the  slope,  one  tier  above  the  other.  As  the  enemy's 
artillery  overshot  the  mark  we  remained  outside  their 
fire.  We  had  however  an  opportunity  to  observe  the 
effects  of  the  shots  sent  by  our  own  artillery  into  the 
enemy's  infantry  position  on  the  slope  in  front  of  us. 
The  shells  (21-cm.  shells)  whizzed  above  our  heads  and 
burst  with  a  tremendous  noise,  each  time  causing  hor- 
rible devastation  in  the  enemy's  trenches. 


THE  HORRORS  OF  STREET  FIGHTING  43 

The  French  were  unable  to  resist  long  such  a  hail  of 
shells.  They  retreated  and  abandoned  all  the  heights 
of  the  Meuse.  They  had  evacuated  the  town  of  Sedan 
without  a  struggle.  In  fact,  that  town  remained  com- 
pletely intact,  in  contrast  to  the  completely  demolished 
Donchery.  Not  a  house  in  Sedan  had  suffered.  When 
the  rallying-call  was  sounded  at  Donchery  it  turned 
out  that  my  company  had  lost  thirty  men  in  that  fight. 
We  mustered  behind  the  barracks  of  the  dragoons, 
and  our  company,  which  had  shrunk  to  ninety  men,  was 
ordered  to  try  and  build  a  pontoon-bridge  across  the 
Meuse  at  a  place  as  yet  unknown  to  us.  Having  been 
reinforced  by  eighty  men  of  the  second  company  we 
marched  away  in  small  groups  so  as  not  to  draw  the 
enemy's  attention  to  us.  After  an  hour's  march  we 
halted  in  a  small  wood,  about  200  yards  away  from  the 
Meuse,  and  were  allowed  to  rest  until  darkness  began 
to  fall. 

When  it  had  become  dark  the  bridge  transportation 
column  —  it  was  that  belonging  to  our  division  —  came 
up  across  the  fields,  to  be  followed  soon  after  by  that 
of  the  army  corps.  All  preparations  having  been  made 
and  the  chief  preliminaries,  like  the  placing  of  the  trestle 
and  the  landing  boards,  gone  through,  the  various  pon- 
toon-wagons drove  up  noiselessly,  in  order  to  be  un- 
loaded just  as  noiselessly  and  with  lightning  speed.  We 
had  already  finished  four  pontoons,  i.  e.,  twenty  yards 
of  bridge,  without  being  observed  by  our  opponent. 
Everything  went  on  all  right.  Suddenly  the  transport- 
able search-lights  of  the  enemy  went  into  action,  and 
swept  up  and  down  the  river.  Though  we  had  thrown 
ourselves  flat  upon  the  ground  wherever  we  stood,  our 
opponents  had  observed  us,  for  the  search-lights  kept 
moving  a  little  to  and  fro  and  finally  kept  our  spot  un- 


44        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

der  continual  illumination.  We  were  discovered.  We 
scarcely  had  time  to  consider,  for  an  artillery  volley 
almost  immediately  struck  the  water  to  our  left  and 
right.  We  were  still  lying  flat  on  the  ground  when 
four  more  shots  came  along.  That  time  a  little  nearer 
to  the  bridge,  and  one  shot  struck  the  bank  of  the  river. 
Immediately  another  volley  followed,  and  two  shells 
struck  the  bridge.  Some  sappers  fell  into  the  water 
and  two  fell  dead  on  the  bridge ;  those  in  the  water  swam 
ashore  and  escaped  with  a  cold  ducking.  One  only  was 
drowned.  It  was  the  man  of  whom  I  told  before  that 
he  was  despised  by  his  fellow-soldiers  because  he  had 
hurt  the  child  of  a  poor  woman  with  a  stone  he  had 
thrown  through  the  window  into  her  room. 


VI 

CROSSING    THE    MEUSE 

In  spite  of  the  continual  and  severe  cannonading  of 
the  artillery  we  succeeded  in  fetching  away  the  two  dead 
soldiers  and  bringing  them  on  land.  The  bridge  had 
been  much  damaged  so  that  we  could  do  nothing  but 
replace  the  ruined  pontoons  by  new  ones.  When  the 
firing  of  the  artillery  had  died  down  somewhat  we  began 
the  difficult  task  for  the  second  time.  But  we  had 
scarcely  begun  when  another  salvo  found  its  mark  and 
damaged  the  bridge  severely ;  fortunately  no  losses  were 
inflicted  upon  us  that  time.  We  were  now  ordered  to 
retire,  only  to  begin  afresh  after  half  an  hour. 

The  enemy's  searchlights  had  been  extinguished,  and 
we  were  able  to  take  some  ten  pontoons  into  line  with- 
out being  molested.  Then,  suddenly,  we  were  again 
overwhelmed  by  the  fire  of  the  artillery;  the  enemy's 
patrols  had  noticed  us.  Several  batteries  had  opened 
fire  on  us  at  the  same  time,  and  in  ten  minutes'  time  all 
our  work  was  nothing  but  a  heap  of  sinking  pontoons; 
twelve  men  were  killed. 

We  now  were  ordered  to  march  away.  Only  eight 
of  our  party  were  left  behind  to  look  after  the  dead  and 
wounded.  We  set  out  to  get  out  of  the  danger  zone. 
After  having  marched  up-stream  for  a  distance  of  about 
a  mile  and  a  quarter  we  halted  and  observed  that  the 
bridge-building  section  of  the  army  corps  was  present 
again.     We  were  told  that  we  should  complete  the  indi- 

45 


46        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

vidual  links  of  the  bridge  on  land.  Those  bridge-links, 
consisting  each  of  two  pontoons,  were  firmly  tied  to- 
gether, provided  with  anchors  and  all  accessories,  com- 
pleted on  land,  and  then  let  down  into  the  water.  The 
site  of  the  bridge,  which  had  meanwhile  been  determined 
upon,  was  made  known  to  us,  and  we  rowed  with  all  our 
might  down  the  river  towards  that  spot. 

Our  opponent,  who  had  gained  no  knowledge  of  that 
ruse,  did  not  molest  us,  and  in  quick  succession  all  the 
bridge-links  reached  the  determined  place.  The  various 
links  were  rowed  into  their  proper  position  with  tre- 
mendous speed,  and  joined  together.  It  did  not  take 
quite  twenty  minutes  to  get  everything  just  sufficiently 
in  shape.  The  infantry,  who  had  kept  in  readiness, 
then  rushed  across  the  bridge  which  had  been  thickly 
strewn  with  straw  so  as  to  deaden  the  noise. 

At  the  same  time  we  had  begun  to  cross  the  river  by 
pontoon  at  various  points,  and  before  the  French  were 
properly  aware  of  what  was  going  on,  the  other  side 
of  the  river  had  been  occupied  by  our  troops  and  was 
soon  firmly  held  by  them. 

The  French  artillery  and  infantry  now  began  to  pour 
a  terrific  fire  on  the  pontoons.  We,  the  sappers,  who 
were  occupying  the  pontoons  of  the  bridge,  were  now 
for  the  greater  part  relieved  and  replaced  by  infantry, 
but  were  distributed  among  the  rowing  pontoons  to 
serve  as  crews.  I  was  placed  at  the  helm  of  one  of  the 
pontoons.  With  four  sappers  at  the  oars  and  eighteen 
infantrymen  as  our  passengers  we  began  our  first  trip 
in  an  infernal  rain  of  missiles.  We  were  lucky  enough 
to  reach  the  other  side  of  the  river  with  only  one  slightly 
wounded  sapper.  I  relieved  that  man,  who  then  took 
the  steering  part.  On  the  return  trip  our  pontoon  was 
hit  by  some  rifle  bullets,  but  happily  only  above  the 


CROSSING  THE  MEUSE  47 

water-line.  To  our  right  and  left  the  pontoons  were 
crossing  the  river,  some  of  them  in  a  sinking  condition. 

The  sappers,  who  are  all  able  to  swim,  sought  to 
reach  the  bank  of  the  river  and  simply  jumped  into  the 
water,  whilst  the  infantrymen  were  drowned  in  crowds. 
Having  landed  and  manned  another  pontoon  we  pushed 
off  once  more  and,  pulling  the  oars  through  the  water 
with  superhuman  strength,  we  made  the  trip  a  second 
time.  That  time  we  reached  the  other  side  with  two 
dead  men  and  a  wounded  infantryman.  We  had  not 
yet  reached  the  other  side  when  all  the  infantry  jumped 
into  the  shallow  water  and  waded  ashore.  We  turned 
our  boat  to  row  back  with  the  two  dead  men  on  board. 
Our  hands  began  to  hurt  much  from  the  continual  row- 
ing and  were  soon  covered  with  blisters  and  blood  blis- 
ters. Still,  we  had  to  row,  however  much  our  hands 
might  swell  and  hurt ;  there  was  no  resting  on  your 
oars  then. 

We  were  about  twenty  yards  from  shore  when  our 
pontoon  was  hit  below  the  water-line  by  several  rifle- 
bullets  at  the  same  time.  A  shot  entering  a  pontoon 
leaves  a  hole  no  bigger  that  the  shot  itself,  but  its  exit 
on  the  other  side  of  the  pontoon  may  be  as  big  as  a  fist 
or  a  plate.  Our  pontoon  then  began  to  sink  rapidly 
so  that  we  sappers  had  no  choice  but  to  jump  into  the 
icy  water.  Scarcely  had  we  left  the  boat  when  it  dis- 
appeared ;  but  all  of  us  reached  the  river-bank  safely. 
We  were  saved  —  for  the  moment.  In  spite  of  our  wet 
clothes  we  had  to  man  another  boat  immediately,  and 
without  properly  regaining  breath  we  placed  our  torn 
hands  again  on  the  oars. 

We  had  scarcely  reached  the  middle  of  the  river 
when  we  collided  with  another  boat.  That  other  boat, 
which  had  lost  her  helmsman,  and  two  oarsmen,  rammed 


48        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

us  with  such  force  that  our  pontoon  turned  turtle  im- 
mediately and  took  down  with  her  all  the  eighteen  in- 
fantrymen besides  one  of  the  sappers.  Four  of  us 
saved  ourselves  in  another  pontoon  and,  thoroughly  wet, 
we  steered  her  to  the  left  bank.  We  had  just  landed 
when  we  were  commanded  to  bring  over  a  pontoon  laden 
with  ammunition,  and  the  "  joy-ride "  was  renewed. 
We  crossed  the  Meuse  about  another  five  times  after 
that. 

Meanwhile  day  had  come.  On  the  left  bank  a  terri- 
ble fight  had  begun  between  the  German  troops  that 
had  been  landed,  and  the  French.  The  Germans  en- 
joyed the  advantage  that  they  were  no  longer  exposed 
to  the  French  artillery. 

We  got  a  short  rest,  and  lay  wet  to  the  skip  in  an 
old  trench  shivering  all  over  with  cold.  Our  hands 
were  swollen  to  more  than  double  their  ordinary  size; 
they  hurt  us  so  much  that  we  could  not  even  lift  our 
water-bottle  to  our  mouths.  It  must  have  been  a  har- 
rowing sight  to  watch  us  young,  strong  fellows  lying 
on  the  ground  helpless  and  broken. 


VII 


IN    PURSUIT 


After  a  short  rest  we  were  commanded  to  search 
the  burning  houses  for  wounded  men.  We  did  not  find 
many  of  them,  for  most  of  the  severely  wounded  soldiers 
who  had  not  been  able  to  seek  safety  unaided  had  been 
miserably  burnt  to  death,  and  one  could  only  judge  by 
the  buttons  and  weapons  of  the  poor  wretches  for  what 
"  fatherland  "  they  had  suffered  their  terrible  death 
by  fire.  With  many  it  was  even  impossible  to  find  out 
the  nationality  they  belonged  to ;  a  little  heap  of  ashes, 
a  ruined  house  were  all  that  was  left  of  whole  families, 
whole  streets  of  families. 

It  was  only  the  wine  cellars,  which  were  mostly  of 
strong  construction,  that  had  generally  withstood  the 
flames.  The  piping  hot  wine  in  bottles  and  barrels, 
proved  a  welcome  refreshment  for  the  soldiers  who  were 
wet  to  their  skins  and  stiff  with  cold.  Even  at  the  risk 
of  their  lives  (for  many  of  the  cellars  threatened  to  col- 
lapse) the  soldiers  would  fetch  out  the  wine  and  drink  it 
greedily,  however  hot  the  wine  might  be. 

And  strangely  enough,  former  scenes  were  repeated. 
After  the  hot  wine  had  taken  effect,  after  again  feel- 
ing refreshed  and  physically  well,  that  same  brutality 
which  had  become  our  second  nature  in  war  showed 
itself  again  in  the  most  shameful  manner.  Most  of  us 
behaved  as  if  we  had  not  taken  part  in  the  unheard-of 
events  of  the  last  hours,  as  if  we  did  not  see  the  hor- 
rible reminders  of  the  awful  slaughter,  as  if  we  had  en- 

49 


50        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

tirely  forgotten  the  danger  of  extinction  which  we  had 
so  narrowly  escaped.  No  effort  was  made  to  do  honor 
to  the  dead  though  every  one  had  been  taught  that 
duty  by  his  mother  from  the  earliest  infancy ;  there 
was  nothing  left  of  that  natural  shyness  which  the  aver- 
age man  feels  in  the  presence  of  death.  The  pen  re- 
fuses even  to  attempt  a  reproduction  of  the  expressions 
used  by  officers  and  soldiers  or  a  description  of  their 
actions,  when  they  set  about  to  establish  the  nationality 
or  sex  of  the  dead.  Circumstances  were  stronger  than 
we  men,  and  I  convinced  myself  again  that  it  was  only 
natural  that  all  feelings  of  humanity  should  disappear 
after  the  daily  routine  of  murdering  and  that  only  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation  should  survive  in  all  its 
strength.  The  longer  the  war  lasted  the  more  murder- 
ous and  bestial  the  men  became. 

Meanwhile  the  fight  between  our  troops  that  had 
crossed  the  river  and  the  French  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Meuse  had  reached  its  greatest  fury.  Our  troops 
had  suffered  great  losses ;  now  our  turn  came.  While 
we  were  crossing,  the  German  artillery  pounded  the 
enemy's  position  with  unheard-of  violence.  Scarcely 
had  we  landed  and  taken  our  places  when  our  section 
proceeded  to  the  assault.  The  artillery  became  silent, 
and  running  forward  we  tried  to  storm  the  slope  lead- 
ing to  the  enemy  positions.  We  got  as  near  as  200 
yards  when  the  French  machine-guns  came  into  action ; 
we  were  driven  back  with  considerable  losses.  Ten  min- 
utes later  we  attempted  again  to  storm  the  positions, 
but  had  only  to  go  back  again  exactly  as  before. 
Again  we  took  up  positions  in  our  trenches,  but  all  de- 
sire for  fighting  had  left  us ;  every  one  stared  stupidly 
in  front  of  him.  Of  course  we  were  not  allowed  to 
lose  courage,  though  the  victims  of  our  useless  assaults 


IN  PURSUIT  51 

were  covering  the  field,  and  our  dead  mates  were  con- 
stantly before  our  eyes. 

The  artillery  opened  fire  again ;  reinforcements  ar- 
rived. Half  an  hour  later  we  stormed  for  the  third 
time  over  the  bodies  of  our  dead  comrades.  That  time 
we  went  forward  in  rushes,  and  when  we  halted  before 
the  enemy's  trench  for  the  last  time,  some  twenty  yards 
away  from  it,  our  opponent  withdrew  his  whole  first 
line.  The  riddle  of  that  sudden  retreat  we  were  able 
to  solve  some  time  later.  It  turned  out  that  the  main 
portions  of  the  French  army  had  retreated  long  ago; 
we  had  merely  been  engaged  in  rear-guard  actions  which, 
however,  had  proved  very  costly  to  us. 

During  the  next  hour  the  enemy  evacuated  all  the 
heights  of  the  Meuse.  When  we  reached  the  ridge  of 
those  heights  we  were  able  to  witness  a  horrifying  sight 
with  our  naked  eyes.  The  roads  which  the  retreating 
enemy  was  using  could  be  easily  surveyed.  In  close 
marching  formation  the  French  were  drawing  off.  The 
heaviest  of  our  artillery  (21 -cm.)  was  mounding  the  re- 
treating columns,  and  shell  after  shell  fell  among  the 
French  infantry  and  other  troops.  Hundreds  of 
French  soldiers  were  literally  torn  to  pieces.  One  could 
see  bodies  and  limbs  being  tossed  in  the  air  and  being 
caught  in  the  trees  bordering  the  roads. 

We  sappers  were  ordered  to  rally  and  we  were  soon 
going  after  the  fleeing  enemy.  It  was  our  task  to 
make  again  passable  for  our  troops  the  roads  which 
had  been  pounded  and  dug  up  by  the  shells;  that  was 
all  the  more  difficult  in  the  mid-day  sun,  as  we  had  first 
to  remove  the  dead  and  wounded.  Two  men  would  take 
a  dead  soldier  by  his  head  and  feet  and  fling  him  in 
a  ditch.  Human  corpses  were  here  treated  and  used 
exactly  as  a  board  in  bridge  building.      Severed  arms 


52        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

and  legs  were  flung  through  the  air  into  the  ditch  in 
the  same  manner.  How  often  since  have  I  not  thought 
of  these  and  similar  incidents,  asking  myself  whether 
I  thought  those  things  improper  or  immoral  at  the 
time?  Again  and  again  I  had  to  return  a  negative  an- 
swer, and  I  am  therefore  fully  convinced  of  how  little 
the  soldiers  can  be  held  responsible  for  the  brutalities 
which  all  of  them  commit,  to  whatever  nation  they  be- 
long. They  are  no  longer  civilized  human  beings,  they 
are  simply  bloodthirsty  brutes,  for  otherwise  they  would 
be  bad,  very  bad  soldiers. 

When,  during  the  first  months  of  the  war  a  Social- 
Democratic  member  of  parliament  announced  that  he 
had  resolved  to  take  voluntary  service  in  the  army  be- 
cause he  believed  that  in  that  manner  he  could  further 
the  cause  of  humanity  on  the  battle-field,  many  a  one 
began  to  laugh,  and  it  was  exactly  our  Socialist  com- 
rades in  our  company  who  made  pointed  remarks.  For 
all  of  us  were  agreed  that  that  representative  of  the 
people  must  either  be  very  simple-minded  or  insincere. 

The  dead  horses  and  shattered  batteries  had  also  to 
be  removed.  We  were  not  strong  enough  to  get  the 
bodies  of  the  horses  out  of  the  way  so  we  procured 
some  horse  roaming  about  without  a  master,  and  fas- 
tened it  to  a  dead  one  to  whose  leg  we  had  attached 
a  noose,  and  thus  we  cleared  the  carcass  out  of  the 
road.  The  portions  of  human  bodies  hanging  in  the 
trees  we  left,  however,  undisturbed.  For  who  was  there 
to  care  about  such  "  trifles  "  ? 

We  searched  the  bottles  and  knapsacks  of  the  dead 
for  eatable  and  drinkable  things,  and  enjoyed  the  things 
found  with  the  heartiest  appetite  imaginable.  Hunger 
and  thirst  are  pitiless  customers  that  cannot  be  turned 
away  by  fits  of  sentimentality. 


IN  PURSUIT  53 

Proceeding  on  our  march  we  found  the  line  of  re- 
treat of  the  enemy  thickly  strewn  with  discarded  rifles, 
knapsacks,  and  other  accouterments.  French  soldiers 
that  had  died  of  sunstroke  were  covering  the  roads  in 
masses.  Others  had  crawled  into  the  fields  to  the  left 
and  right,  where  they  were  expecting  help  or  death. 
But  we  could  not  assist  them  for  we  judged  ourselves 
happy  if  we  could  keep  our  worn-out  bodies  from  col- 
lapsing altogether.  But  even  if  we  had  wanted  to  help 
them  we  should  not  have  been  allowed  to  do  so,  for  the 
order  was  "  Forward !  " 

At  that  time  I  began  to  notice  in  many  soldiers  what 
I  had  never  observed  before  —  they  felt  envious. 
Many  of  my  mates  envied  the  dead  soldiers  and  wished 
to  be  in  their  place  in  order  to  be  at  least  through  with 
all  their  misery.  Yet  all  of  us  were  afraid  of  dying 
—  afraid  of  dying,  be  it  noted,  not  of  death.  All  of 
us  often  longed  for  death,  but  we  were  horrified  at 
the  slow  dying  lasting  hours  which  is  the  rule  on  the 
battle-field,  that  process  which  makes  the  wounded, 
abandoned  soldier  die  piecemeal.  I  have  witnessed  the 
death  of  hundreds  of  young  men  in  their  prime,  but 
I  know  of  none  among  them  who  died  willingly.  A 
young  sapper  of  the  name  of  Kellner,  whose  home  was 
at  Cologne,  had  his  whole  abdomen  ripped  open  by  a 
shell  splinter  so  that  his  entrails  were  hanging  to  the 
ground.  Maddened  by  pain  he  begged  me  to  assure 
him  that  he  would  not  have  to  die.  Of  course,  I  as- 
sured him  that  his  wounds  were  by  no  means  severe  and 
that  the  doctor  would  be  there  immediately  to  help  him. 
Though  I  was  a  layman  who  had  never  had  the  slight- 
est acquaintance  with  the  treatment  of  patients  I  was 
perfectly   aware  that  the  poor  fellow  could   only   live 


54       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

through  a  few  hours  of  pain.  But  my  words  comforted 
him.     He  died  ten  minutes  later. 

We  had  to  march  on  and  on.  The  captain  told  us 
we  had  been  ordered  to  press  the  fleeing  enemy  as  hard 
as  possible.  He  was  answered  by  a  disapproving  mur- 
mur from  the  whole  section.  For  long  days  and  nights 
we  had  been  on  our  legs,  had  murdered  like  savages,  had 
had  neither  opportunity  nor  possibility  to  eat  or  rest, 
and  now  they  asked  us  worn-out  men  to  conduct  an  ob- 
stinate pursuit.  The  captain  knew  very  well  what  we 
were  feeling,  and  tried  to  pacify  us  with  kind  words. 

The  cavalry  divisions  had  not  been  able  to  cross 
the  Meuse  for  want  of  apparatus  and  bridges.  For 
the  present  the  pursuit  had  to  be  carried  out  by  in- 
fantry and  comparatively  small  bodies  of  artillery. 
Thus  we  had  to  press  on  in  any  case,  at  least  until  the 
cavalry  and  machine-gun  sections  had  crossed  the 
bridges  that  had  remained  intact  farther  down  stream 
near  Sedan.  Round  Sommepy  the  French  rear-guard 
faced  us  again.  When  four  batteries  of  our  artillery 
went  into  action  at  that  place  our  company  and  two 
companies  of  infantry  with  machine  guns  were  told  off 
to  cover  the  artillery. 

The  artillery  officers  thought  that  the  covering  troops 
were  insufficient,  because  aeroplanes  had  established 
the  presence  of  large  masses  of  hostile  cavalry  an  at- 
tack from  whom  was  feared.  But  reinforcements  could 
not  be  had  as  there  was  a  lack  of  troops  for  the  mo- 
ment. So  we  had  to  take  up  positions  as  well  as  we 
could.  We  dug  shallow  trenches  to  the  left  and  right 
of  the  battery  in  a  nursery  of  fir  trees  which  were  about 
a  yard  high.  The  machine-guns  were  built  in  and  got 
ready,  and  ammunition  was  made  ready  for  use  in  large 
quantities.     We  had  not  yet  finished  our  preparations 


IN  PURSUIT  55 

when  the  shells  of  our  artillery  began  to  whizz  above  our 
heads  and  pound  the  ranks  of  our  opponent.  The  fir 
nursery  concealed  us  from  the  enemy,  but  a  little  wood, 
some  500  yards  in  front  of  us,  effectively  shut  out 
our  view. 

We  were  now  instructed  in  what  we  were  to  do  in 
case  of  an  attack  by  cavalry.  An  old  white-haired 
major  of  the  infantry  had  taken  command.  We  sap- 
pers were  distributed  among  the  infantry,  but  those 
brave  '*  gentlemen,"  our  officers,  had  suddenly  disap- 
peared. Probably  the  defense  of  the  fatherland  is  in 
their  opinion  only  the  duty  of  the  common  soldier.  As 
those  "  gentlemen  "  are  only  there  to  command  and  as 
we  had  been  placed  under  the  orders  of  infantry  officers 
for  that  undertaking,  they  had  become  superfluous  and 
had  taken  French  leave. 

Our  instructions  were  to  keep  quiet  in  case  of  an 
attack  by  cavalry,  to  take  aim,  and  not  allow  ourselves 
to  be  seen.  We  were  not  to  fire  until  a  machine-gun, 
commanded  by  the  major  in  person,  went  into  action, 
and  then  we  were  to  fire  as  rapidly  as  the  rifle  could  be 
worked ;  we  were  not  to  forget  to  aim  quietly,  but 
quickly. 

Our  batteries  fired  with  great  violence,  their  aim- 
ing being  regulated  by  a  biplane,  soaring  high  up  in 
the  air,  by  means  of  signals  which  were  given  by  rock- 
ets whose  signification  experts  only  could  understand. 

One  quarter  of  an  hour  followed  the  other,  and  we 
were  almost  convinced  that  we  should  be  lucky  enough 
that  time  to  be  spared  going  into  action.  Suddenly 
things  became  lively.  One  man  nudged  the  other,  and 
all  eyes  were  turned  to  the  edge  of  the  little  wood  some 
five  hundred  yards  in  front  of  us.  A  vast  mass  of 
horsemen  emerged  from   both   sides   of   the  little  wood 


56       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

and,  uniting  in  front  of  it,  rushed  towards  us.  That 
immense  lump  of  living  beings  approached  our  line  in 
a  mad  gallop.  Glancing  back  involuntarily  I  observed 
that  our  artillery  had  completely  ceased  firing  and  that 
its  crews  were  getting  their  carbines  ready  to  defend 
their  guns. 

But  quicker  than  I  can  relate  it  misfortune  came 
thundering  up.  Without  being  quite  aware  of  what 
I  was  doing  I  felt  all  over  my  body  to  find  some  place 
struck  by  a  horse's  hoof.  The  cavalry  came  nearer 
and  nearer  in  their  wild  career.  Already  one  could 
see  the  hoofs  of  the  horses  which  scarcely  touched  the 
ground  and  seemed  to  fly  over  the  few  hundred  yards 
of  ground.  We  recognized  the  riders  in  their  solid 
uniforms,  we  even  thought  we  could  notice  the  excited 
faces  of  the  horsemen  who  were  expecting  a  sudden  hail 
of  bullets  to  mow  them  down.  Meanwhile  they  had 
approached  to  a  distance  of  some  350  yards.  The 
snorting  of  the  horses  was  every  moment  becoming  more 
distinct.  No  machine-gun  firing  was  yet  to  be  heard. 
Three  hundred  yards  —  250.  My  neighbor  poked  me 
in  the  ribs  rather  indelicately,  saying,  "  Has  the  old 
mass  murderer  (I  did  not  doubt  for  a  moment  that  he 
meant  the  major)  gone  mad!  It's  all  up  with  us,  to 
be  sure ! "  I  paid  no  attention  to  his  talk.  Every 
nerve  in  my  body  was  hammering  away ;  convulsively  I 
clung  to  my  rifle,  and  awaited  the  calamity.  Two  hun- 
dred yards !  Nothing  as  yet.  Was  the  old  chap  blind 
or — ?  One  hundred  and  eighty  yards!  I  felt  a  cold 
sweat  running  down  my  back  and  trembled  as  if  my 
last  hour  had  struck.  One  hundred  and  fifty!  My 
neighbor  pressed  close  to  me.  The  situation  became  un- 
bearable. One  hundred  and  thirty  —  an  infernal  noise 
had  started.     Rrrrrrrr  —     An  overwhelming  hail  of 


IN  PURSUIT  57 

bullets  met  the  attacking  party  and  scarcely  a  bullet 
missed  the  lump  of  humanity  and  beasts. 

The  first  ranks  were  struck  down.  Men  and  beasts 
formed  a  wall  on  which  rolled  the  waves  of  succeeding 
horses,  only  to  be  smashed  by  that  terrible  hail  of  bul- 
lets. "  Continue  firing !  "  rang  out  the  command  which 
was  not  needed.  "  More  lively ! "  The  murderous 
work  was  carried  out  more  rapidly  and  with  more  crush- 
ing effect.  Hundreds  of  volleys  were  sent  straight  into 
the  heap  of  living  beings  struggling  against  death. 
Hundreds  were  laid  low  every  second.  Scarcely  a  hun- 
dred yards  in  front  of  us  lay  more  than  six  hundred 
men  and  horses,  on  top  of  each  other,  beside  each  other, 
apart,  in  every  imaginable  position.  What  five  minutes 
ago  had  been  a  picture  of  strength,  proud  horsemen, 
joyful  youth,  was  now  a  bloody,  shapeless,  miserable 
lump  of  bleeding  flesh. 

And  what  about  ourselves?  We  laughed  about  our 
heroic  deed  and  cracked  jokes.  When  danger  was  over 
we  lost  that  anxious  feeling  which  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  us.  Was  it  fear?  It  is,  of  course,  supposed 
that  a  German  soldier  knows  no  fear  —  at  the  most 
he  fear6  God,  but  nothing  else  in  the  world  —  and  yet 
it  was  fear,  low  vulgar  fear  that  we  feel  just  as  much 
as  the  French,  the  English,  or  the  Turks,  and  he  who 
dares  to  contradict  this  and  talk  of  bravery  and  the 
fearless  courage  of  the  warrior,  has  either  never  been 
in  war,  or  is  a  vulgar  liar  and  hypocrite. 

Why  were  we  joyful  and  why  did  we  crack  jokes? 
Because  it  was  the  others  and  not  ourselves  who  had  to 
lose  their  lives  that  time.  Because  it  was  a  life  and 
death  struggle.  It  was  either  we  or  they.  We  had  a 
right  to  be  glad  and  chase  all  sentimentality  to  the  devil. 
Were  we  not  soldiers,  mass  murderers,  barbarians? 


VIII 

NEARLY    BURIED    ALIVE   ON    THE    BATTLEFIELD 

The  commander  of  the  artillery  smilingly  came  up 
to  the  major  of  the  infantry  and  thanked  and  congratu- 
lated him. 

We  then  went  after  the  rest  of  our  attackers  who 
were  in  full  flight.  The  machine  guns  kept  them  under 
fire.  Some  two  hundred  might  have  escaped;  they  fled 
in  all  directions.  The  artillery  thereupon  began  again 
to  fire,  whilst  we  set  about  to  care  for  our  wounded  ene- 
mies. It  was  no  easy  job,  for  we  had  to  draw  the 
wounded  from  beneath  the  horses  some  of  which  were 
still  alive.  The  animals  kicked  wildly  about  them,  and 
whenever  they  succeeded  in  getting  free  they  rushed  off 
like  demented  however  severely  they  had  been  hurt. 
Many  a  wounded  man  who  otherwise  might  have  recov- 
ered was  thus  killed  by  the  hoofs  of  the  horses. 

With  the  little  packet  of  bandaging  material  which  we 
all  had  on  us  we  bandaged  the  men,  who  were  mostly 
severely  wounded,  but  a  good  many  died  in  our  hands 
while  we  were  trying  to  put  on  a  temporary  dressing. 
As  far  as  they  were  still  able  to  speak  they  talked  to  us 
with  extreme  vivacity.  Though  we  did  not  understand 
their  language  we  knew  what  they  wanted  to  express, 
for  their  gestures  and  facial  expressions  were  very  elo- 
quent. They  desired  to  express  their  gratitude  for  the 
charitable  service  we  were  rendering  them,  and  like  our- 
selves they  did  not  seem  to  be  able  to  understand  how 

58 


NEARLY  BURIED  ALIVE  ON  THE  BATTLEFIELD        59 

men  could  first  kill  each  other,  could  inflict  pain  on  each 
other,  and  then  assist  each  other  to  the  utmost  of  their 
ability.  To  them  as  well  as  to  us  this  world  seemed  to 
stand  on  its  head;  it  was  a  world  in  which  they  were 
mere  marionettes,  guided  and  controlled  by  a  superior 
power.  How  often  were  we  not  made  aware  in  that 
manner  of  the  uselessness  of  all  this  human  slaughter ! 

We  common  soldiers  were  here  handling  the  dead  and 
wounded  as  if  we  had  never  done  anything  else,  and  yet 
in  our  civilian  lives  most  of  us  had  an  abhorrence  and 
fear  of  the  dead  and  the  horribly  mangled.  War  is  a 
hard  school-master  who  bends  and  reshapes  his 
pupils. 

One  section  was  busy  with  digging  a  common  grave 
for  the  dead.  We  took  away  the  papers  and  valuables 
of  the  dead,  took  possession  of  the  eatable  and  drinkable 
stores  to  be  found  in  the  saddle  bags  attached  to  the 
horses  and,  when  the  grave  was  ready,  we  began  to  place 
the  dead  bodies  in  it.  They  were  laid  close  together 
in  order  to  utilize  fully  the  available  space.  I,  too,  had 
been  ordered  to  "  bring  in  "  the  dead.  The  bottom  of 
the  grave  was  large  enough  for  twenty-three  bodies  if 
the  space  was  well  utilized.  When  two  layers  of 
twenty-three  had  already  been  buried  a  sergeant  of  the 
artillery,  who  was  standing  near,  observed  that  one  of 
the  "  dead  "  was  still  alive.  He  had  seen  the  "  corpse  " 
move  the  fingers  of  his  right  hand.  On  closer  exam- 
ination it  turned  out  that  we  came  near  burying  a 
living  man,  for  after  an  attempt  lasting  two  hours  we 
succeeded  in  restoring  him  to  consciousness.  The  of- 
ficer of  the  infantry  who  supervised  the  work  now 
turned  to  the  two  soldiers  charged  with  getting  the 
corpses  ready  and  asked  them  whether  they  were  sure 
that  all  the  men  buried  were  really  dead.     "  Yes,"  the 


60        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

two  replied,  "  we  suppose  they  are  all  dead."  That 
seemed  to  be  quite  sufficient  for  that  humane  officer,  for 
he  ordered  the  interments  to  proceed.  Nobody 
doubted  that  there  were  several  more  among  the  138 
men  whom  we  alone  buried  in  one  grave  (two  other,  still 
bigger,  graves  had  been  dug  by  different  burial  parties) 
from  whose  bodies  life  had  not  entirely  flown.  To  be 
buried  alive  is  just  one  of  those  horrors  of  the  battle- 
field which  your  bar-room  patriot  at  home  (or  in  Amer- 
ica) does  not  even  dream  of  in  his  philosophy. 

Nothing  was  to  be  seen  of  the  enemy's  infantry.  It 
seemed  that  our  opponent  had  sent  only  artillery  and 
cavalry  to  face  us.  Meanwhile  the  main  portions  of 
our  army  came  up  in  vast  columns.  Cavalry  divisions 
with  mounted  artillery  and  machine-gun  sections  left 
all  the  other  troops  behind  them.  The  enemy  had  suc- 
ceeded in  disengaging  himself  almost  completely  from 
us,  wherefor  our  cavalry  accelerated  their  movements 
with  the  intention  of  getting  close  to  the  enemy  and 
as  quickly  as  possible  in  order  to  prevent  his  demoral- 
ized troops  from  resting  at  night.  We,  too,  got  ready 
to  march,  and  were  just  going  to  march  off  when  we 
received  orders  to  form  camp.  The  camping  ground 
was  exactly  mapped  out,  as  was  always  the  case,  by  the 
superior  command,  so  that  they  would  know  where  we 
were  to  be  found  in  case  of  emergency.  We  had 
scarcely  reached  our  camping  grounds  when  our  field 
kitchen,  which  we  thought  had  lost  us,  appeared  before 
our  eyes  as  if  risen  from  out  of  the  ground.  The  men 
of  the  field  kitchen,  who  had  no  idea  of  the  losses  we 
had  suffered  during  the  last  days,  had  cooked  for  the 
old  number  of  heads.  They  were  therefore  not  a  little 
surprised  when  they  found  in  the  place  of  a  brave  com- 
pany of  sturdy  sappers  only  a  crowd  of  ragged  men, 


NEARLY  BURIED  ALIVE  ON  THE  BATTLEFIELD        61 

the  shadows  of  their  former  selves,  broken  and  tired 
to  their  very  bones.  We  were  given  canned  soup, 
bread,  meat,  coffee,  and  a  cigarette  each.  At  last  we 
were  able  to  eat  once  again  to  our  hearts'  content.  We 
could  drink  as  much  coffee  as  we  liked.  And  then  that 
cigarette,  which  appeared  to  most  of  us  more  important 
than  eating  and  drinking! 

All  those  fine  things  and  the  expectation  of  a  few 
hours  of  rest  in  some  potato  field  aroused  in  us  an  al- 
most childish  joy.  We  were  as  merry  as  boys  and  as 
noisy  as  street  urchins.  "  Oh,  what  a  joy  to  be  a  sol- 
dier lad !  " — that  song  rang  out,  subdued  at  first,  then 
louder  and  louder.  It  died  away  quickly  enough  as  one 
after  the  other  laid  down  his  tired  head.  Wre  slept  like 
the  dead. 

We  could  sleep  till  six  o'clock  the  next  morning. 
Though  all  of  us  lay  on  the  bare  ground  it  was  with  no 
little  trouble  that  they  succeeded  in  wraking  us  up. 
That  morning  breakfast  was  excellent.  We  received 
requisitioned  mutton,  vegetables,  bread,  coffee,  a  cup- 
ful of  wine,  and  some  ham.  The  captain  admonished 
us  to  stuff  in  well,  for  we  had  a  hard  day's  march  be- 
fore us.  At  seven  o'clock  we  struck  camp.  At  the 
beginning  of  that  march  we  were  in  fairly  good  humor. 
Whilst  conversing  we  discovered  that  we  had  completely 
lost  all  reckoning  of  time.  Nobody  knew  whether  it 
was  Monday  or  Wednesday,  whether  it  was  the  fifth  or 
the  tenth  of  the  month.  Subsequently,  the  same  phe- 
nomenon could  be  observed  only  in  a  still  more  notice- 
able way.  A  soldier  in  war  never  knows  the  date  or 
day  of  the  week.  One  day  is  like  another.  Whether 
it  is  Saturday,  Thursday  or  Sunday,  it  means  always 
the  same  routine  of  murdering.  "  Remember  the  Sab- 
bath   day    to    keep    it   holy!"     "Six   days   shalt   thou 


62        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

labor  and  do  all  thy  work.  But  the  seventh  day  — 
thou  shalt  not  do  any  work."  These,  to  our  Christian 
rulers,  are  empty  phrases.  "  Six  days  shalt  thou  mur- 
der and  on  the  seventh  day,  too." 

When  we  halted  towards  noon  near  a  large  farm  we 
had  again  to  wait  in  vain  for  our  field  kitchen.  So  we 
helped  ourselves.  We  shot  one  of  the  cows  grazing  in 
the  meadows,  slit  its  skin  without  first  letting  off  the 
blood,  and  each  one  cut  himself  a  piece  of  meat.  The 
meat,  which  was  still  warm,  was  roasted  a  little  in  our 
cooking  pots.  By  many  it  was  also  eaten  raw  with 
pepper  and  salt.  That  killing  of  cattle  on  our  own 
hook  was  repeated  almost  daily.  The  consequence  was 
that  all  suffered  with  their  stomachs,  for  the  meat  was 
mostly  still  warm,  and  eating  it  without  bread  or  other 
food  did  not  agree  with  us.  Still,  the  practice  was  con- 
tinued. If  a  soldier  was  hungry  and  if  he  found  a  pig, 
cow,  or  lamb  during  his  period  of  rest,  he  would  simply 
shoot  the  beast  and  cut  off  a  piece  for  his  own  use,  leav- 
ing the  rest  to  perish. 

On  our  march  we  passed  a  little  town,  between  At- 
tigny  and  Sommepy,  crowded  with  refugees.  Many  of 
the  refugees  were  ill,  and  among  their  children  an  epi- 
demic was  raging  which  was  infecting  the  little  ones  of 
the  town.  A  German  medical  column  had  arrived  a 
short  time  before  us.  They  asked  for  ten  sappers  — 
the  maids  of  all  work  in  war  time  —  to  assist  them  in 
their  labors.  I  was  one  of  the  ten  drafted  off  for  that 
duty. 

We  were  first  taken  by  the  doctors  to  a  wonderfully 
arranged  park  in  the  center  of  which  stood  a  castle- 
like house,  a  French  manor-house.  The  owner,  a  very 
rich  Frenchman,  lived  there  with  his  wife  and  an  ex- 
cessive number  of  servants.     Though  there  was  room 


NEARLY  BURIED  ALIVE  OX  THE  BATTLEFIELD        63 

enough  in  the  palace  for  more  than  a  hundred  patients 
and  refugees,  that  humane  patriot  refused  to  admit  any 
one,  and  had  locked  and  bolted  the  house  and  all  en- 
trances to  the  park.  It  did  not  take  us  long  to  force 
all  the  doors  and  make  all  the  locks  useless.  The  lady 
of  the  house  had  to  take  up  quarters  in  two  large 
rooms,  but  that  beauty  of  a  male  aristocrat  had  to  live 
in  the  garage  and  had  to  put  up  with  a  bed  of  straw. 
In  that  way  the  high  and  mighty  gentleman  got  a  taste 
of  the  refugee  life  which  so  many  of  his  countrymen 
had  to  go  through.  He  was  given  his  food  by  one  of 
the  soldiers  of  the  medical  corps ;  it  was  nourishing 
food,  most  certainly  too  nourishing  for  our  gentleman. 
One  of  my  mates,  a  Socialist  comrade,  observed  drily, 

"  It's  at  least  a  consolation  that  our  own  gang  of 
junkers  isn't  any  worse  than  that  mob  of  French  aris- 
tocrats ;  they  are  all  of  a  kidney.  If  only  the  people 
were  to  get  rid  of  the  whole  pack  they  wouldn't  then 
have  to  tear  each  other  to  pieces  any  longer  like  wild 
beasts." 

In  the  meantime  our  mates  had  roamed  through  the 
country  and  captured  a  large  barrel  full  of  honey. 
Each  one  had  filled  his  cooking  pot  with  honey  to  the 
very  brim  and  buckled  it  to  his  knapsack.  The  ten  of 
us  did  likewise,  and  then  we  went  off  to  find  our  section 
with  which  we  caught  up  in  a  short  time.  But  we  had 
scarcely  marched  a  few  hundred  yards  when  we  were 
pursued  by  bees  whose  numbers  increased  by  hundreds 
every  minute.  However  much  we  tried  to  shake  off 
the  little  pests  their  attentions  grew  worse  and  worse. 
Every  one  of  us  was  stung;  many  had  their  faces  swol- 
len to  such  an  extent  that  they  were  no  longer  able  to 
see.  The  officers  who  were  riding  some  twenty  yards  in 
front  of  us  began  to  notice  our  slow  movements.     The 


64       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

"  old  man  "  came  along,  saw  the  bees  and  the  swollen 
faces  but  could,  of  course,  not  grasp  the  meaning  of  it 
all  until  a  sergeant  proffered  the  necessary  information. 
"Who's  got  honey  in  his  cooking  pot?"  the  old  chap 
cried  angrily.  "  All  of  us,"  the  sergeant  replied. 
"You,  too?"  "Yes,  captain."  The  old  man  was 
very  wild,  for  he  was  not  even  able  to  deal  out  punish- 
ments. We  had  to  halt  and  throw  away  the  "  accursed 
things,"  as  our  severe  master  called  them.  We  helped 
each  other  to  unbuckle  the  cooking  pots,  and  our  sweet 
provisions  were  flung  far  away  into  the  fields  on  both 
sides  of  the  road.  With  the  honey  we  lost  our  cooking 
utensils,  which  was  certainly  not  a  very  disagreeable 
relief. 

We  continued  our  march  in  the  burning  noon-day 
sun.  The  ammunition  columns  and  other  army  sec- 
tions which  occupied  the  road  gave  the  whirled-up  dust 
no  time  to  settle.  All  around  us  in  the  field  refugees 
were  camping,  living  there  like  poor,  homeless  gypsies. 
Many  came  up  to  us  and  begged  for  a  piece  of  dry 
bread. 

Without  halting  we  marched  till  late  at  night.  To- 
wards nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  we  found  ourselves 
quite  close  to  the  town  hall  of  Sommepy.  Here,  in  and 
about  Sommepy,  fighting  had  started  again,  and  we 
had  received  orders  to  take  part  in  it  to  the  northwest 
of  Sommepy. 


IX 

SOLDIERS    SHOOTING    THEIR    OWN    OFFICERS 

It  was  dark  already,  and  we  halted  once  more.  The 
ground  around  us  was  strewn  with  dead.  In  the  middle 
of  the  road  were  some  French  batteries  and  munition 
wagons,  with  the  horses  still  attached ;  but  horses  and 
men  were  dead.  After  a  ten  minutes'  rest  we  started 
again.  Marching  more  quickly,  we  now  approached  a 
small  wood  in  which  dismounted  cavalry  and  infantry 
were  waging  a  desperate  hand-to-hand  struggle  with 
the  enemy.  So  as  to  astonish  the  latter  we  had  to 
rush  in  with  a  mighty  yell.  Under  cover  of  darkness 
we  had  succeeded  in  getting  to  the  enemy's  rear.  Taken 
by  surprise  by  the  unexpected  attack  and  our  war 
whoop,  most  of  the  Frenchmen  lifted  their  hands  and 
begged  for  quarter,  which  was,  however,  not  granted 
by  the  infuriated  cavalrymen  and  infantry.  When,  on 
our  side,  now  and  then  the  murdering  of  defenseless 
men  seemed  to  slacken  it  was  encouraged  again  by  the 
loud  commands  of  the  officers.  "  No  quarter !  "  "  Cut 
them  all  down !  "  Such  were  the  orders  of  those  esti- 
mable gentlemen,  the  officers. 

We  sappers,  too,  had  to  participate  in  the  cold- 
blooded slaughtering  of  defenseless  men.  The  French 
were  defenseless  because  they  threw  away  their  arms 
and  asked  for  quarter  the  moment  that  they  recognized 
the  futility  of  further  resistance.  But  the  officers  then 
saw  to  it,  as  on  many  earlier  and  later  occasions,  that 

"  too   many    prisoners   were   not   made."     The   sapper 

65 


66       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

carries  a  bayonet  which  must  not  be  fixed  to  the  rifle 
according  to  international  agreement,  because  the  back 
of  that  bayonet  is  an  extremely  sharp  steel  saw,  three 
millimeters  in  thickness.  In  times  of  peace  the  sapper 
never  does  bayonet  practice,  the  bayonet  being  exclu- 
sively reserved  for  mechanical  purposes.  But  what 
does  militarism  care  for  international  law!  We  here 
had  to  fix  the  saw,  as  had  always  been  done  since  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  Humanity  was  a  jest  when  one 
saw  an  opponent  with  the  toothed  saw  in  his  chest  and 
the  victim,  who  had  long  given  up  all  resistance,  endeav- 
oring to  remove  the  deadly  steel  from  the  wound. 
Often  that  terrible  tool  of  murder  had  fastened  itself  so 
firmly  in  the  victim's  chest  that  the  attacker,  in  order 
to  get  his  bayonet  back,  had  to  place  his  foot  on  the 
chest  of  the  miserable  man  and  try  with  all  his  might  to 
remove  the  weapon. 

The  dead  and  wounded  lay  everywhere  covered  with 
terrible  injuries,  and  the  crying  of  the  wounded,  which 
might  soften  a  stone,  but  not  a  soldier's  heart,  told  of 
the  awful  pain  which  those  "  defenders  of  their  coun- 
try "  had  to  suffer. 

However,  not  all  the  soldiers  approved  of  that  sense- 
less, that  criminal  murdering.  Some  of  the  "  gentle- 
men "  who  had  ordered  us  to  massacre  our  French  com- 
rades were  killed  "  by  mistake  "  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night,  by  their  own  people,  of  course.  Such  "  mis- 
takes "  repeat  themselves  almost  daily,  and  if  I  keep 
silence  with  regard  to  many  such  mistakes  which  I  could 
relate,  giving  the  exact  name  and  place,  the  reader  will 
know  why. 

During  that  night  it  was  a  captain  and  first  lieuten- 
ant who  met  his  fate.  An  infantryman  who  was  serv- 
ing his   second  year  stabbed  the  captain  through  the 


SOLDIERS  SHOOTING  THEIR  OWN  OFFICERS        67 

stomach  with  his  bayonet,  and  almost  at  the  same  time 
the  first  lieutenant  got  a  stab  in  the  back.  Both  men 
were  dead  in  a  few  minutes.  Those  that  did  the  deeds 
showed  not  the  slightest  signs  of  repentance,  and  not 
one  of  us  felt  inclined  to  reproach  them ;  on  the  con- 
trary, every  one  knew  that  despicable,  brutal  murder- 
ers had  met  their  doom. 

In  this  connection  I  must  mention  a  certain  incident 
which  necessitates  my  jumping  a  little  ahead  of  events. 
When  on  the  following  day  I  conversed  with  a  mate 
from  my  company  and  asked  him  for  the  loan  of  his 
pocket  knife  he  drew  from  his  pocket  three  cartridges 
besides  his  knife.  I  was  surprised  to  find  him  carry- 
ing cartridges  in  his  trousers'  pockets  and  asked  him 
whether  he  had  no  room  for  them  in  his  cartridge  case. 
"  There's  room  enough,"  he  replied,  "  but  those  three 
are  meant  for  a  particular  purpose ;  there's  a  name 
inscribed  on  each  of  them."  Some  time  after  —  we  had 
meanwhile  become  fast  friends  —  I  inquired  again  after 
the  three  bullets.  He  had  one  of  them  left.  I  re- 
flected and  remembered  two  sergeants  who  had  treated 
us  like  brutes  in  times  of  peace,  whom  we  had  hated  as 
one  could  only  hate  slave-drivers.  They  had  found 
their  grave  in  French  soil. 

The  murder  did  not  cease  as  long  as  an  opponent  was 
alive.  We  were  then  ordered  to  see  whether  all  the 
enemies  lying  on  the  ground  were  really  dead  or  un- 
able to  fight.  "  Should  you  find  one  who  pretends  to  be 
dead,  he  must  be  killed  without  mercy."  That  was  the 
order  we  received  for  that  tour  of  inspection.  How- 
ever, the  soldiers  who  had  meanwhile  quieted  down  a 
little  and  who  had  thus  regained  their  senses  took  no 
trouble  to  execute  the  shameful  command.  What  the 
soldiers  thought  of  it  is  shown  by  the  remark  of  a  man 


68       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

belonging  to  my  company  who  said,  "  Let's  rather  look 
if  the  two  officers  are  quite  dead;  if  not,  we  shall  have 
to  kill  them,  too,  without  mercy."  An  order  was  an 
order,  he  added. 

We  now  advanced  quickly,  but  our  participation  was 
no  longer  necessary,  for  the  whole  line  of  the  enemy 
retired  and  then  faced  us  again,  a  mile  and  a  quarter 
southwest  of  Sommepy.  Sommepy  itself  was  burning 
for  the  greater  part,  and  its  streets  were  practically 
covered  with  the  dead.  The  enemy's  artillery  was  still 
bombarding  the  place,  and  shells  were  falling  all  around 
us.  Several  hundred  prisoners  were  gathered  in  the 
market-place.  A  few  shells  fell  at  the  same  time  among 
the  prisoners,  but  they  had  to  stay  where  they  were. 
An  officer  of  my  company,  lieutenant  of  the  reserve 
Neesen,  observed  humanely  that  that  could  not  do  any 
harm,  for  thus  the  French  got  a  taste  of  their  own 
shells.  He  was  rewarded  with  some  cries  of  shame. 
A  Socialist  comrade,  a  reservist,  had  the  pluck  to  cry 
aloud,  "  Do  you  hear  that,  comrades?  That's  the  no- 
ble sentiment  of  an  exploiter;  that  fellow  is  the  son  of 
an  Elberfeld  capitalist  and  his  father  is  a  sweating- 
den  keeper  of  the  worst  sort.  When  you  get  home 
again  do  not  forget  what  this  capitalist  massacre  has 
taught  you.  Those  prisoners  are  proletarians,  are  our 
brethren,  and  what  we  are  doing  here  in  the  interest  of 
that  gang  of  capitalist  crooks  is  a  crime  against  our 
own  body ;  it  is  murdering  our  own  brothers !  "  He 
was  going  to  continue  talking,  but  the  sleuths  were  soon 
upon  him,  and  he  was  arrested.  He  threw  down  his 
gun  with  great  force;  then  he  quietly  suffered  himself 
to  be  led  away. 

All  of  us  were  electrified.  Not  one  spoke  a  word. 
One  suddenly  beheld  quite  a  different  world.     We  had  a 


SOLDIEJRS  SHOOTING  THEIR  OWN  OFFICERS        69 

vision  which  kept  our  imagination  prisoner.  Was  it 
true  what  we  had  heard  —  that  those  prisoners  were 
not  our  enemies  at  all,  that  they  were  our  brothers? 
That  which  formerly  —  O  how  long  ago  might  that 
have  been !  —  in  times  of  peace,  had  appeared  to  us  as 
a  matter  of  course  had  been  forgotten ;  in  war  we  had 
regarded  our  enemies  as  our  friends  and  our  friends  as 
our  enemies.  Those  words  of  the  Elberfeld  comrade 
had  lifted  the  fog  from  our  brains  and  from  before  our 
eyes.  We  had  again  a  clear  view;  we  could  recognize 
things  again. 

One  looked  at  the  other  and  nodded  without  speak- 
ing; each  one  felt  that  the  brave  words  of  our  friend 
had  been  a  boon  to  us,  and  none  could  refrain  from 
inwardly  thanking  and  appreciating  the  bold  man. 
The  man  in  front  of  me,  who  had  been  a  patriot  all 
along  as  far  as  I  knew,  but  who  was  aware  of  my 
views,  pressed  my  hand,  saying.  "  Those  few  words 
have  opened  my  eyes ;  I  was  blind ;  we  are  friends. 
Those  words  came  at  the  proper  time."  Others  again 
I  heard  remark:  "You  can't  surpass  Schotes ;  such  a 
thing  requires  more  courage  than  all  of  us  together 
possess.  For  he  knew  exactly  the  consequences  that 
follow  when  one  tells  the  truth.  Did  you  see  the  last 
look  he  gave  us?  That  meant  as  much  as,  'Don't  be 
concerned  about  me ;  I  shall  fight  my  way  through  to 
the  end.  Be  faithful  workers ;  remain  faithful  to  your 
class !  '  " 

The  place,  overcrowded  with  wounded  soldiers,  was 
almost  entirely  occupied  by  the  Germans.  The  medical 
corps  could  not  attend  to  all  the  work,  for  the  wounded 
kept  streaming  in  in  enormous  numbers.  So  we  had  to 
lend  a  helping  hand,  and  bandaged  friend  and  enemy  to 
the  best  of  our  ability.     But  contrary  to  earlier  times 


70       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

when  the  wounded  were  treated  considerately,  things 
were  now  done  more  roughly. 

The  fighting  to  the  south  of  the  place  had  reached 
its  greatest  violence  towards  one  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, and  when  the  Germans  began  to  storm  at  all 
points,  the  French  retired  from  their  positions  in  the 
direction  of  Suippes. 

Whether  our  ragged  company  was  no  longer  consid- 
ered able  to  fight  or  whether  we  were  no  longer  required, 
I  do  not  know;  but  we  got  orders  to  seek  quarters. 
We  could  find  neither  barn  nor  stable,  so  we  had  to 
camp  in  the  open;  the  houses  were  all  crowded  with 
wounded  men. 

On  that  day  I  was  commanded  to  mount  guard  and 
was  stationed  with  the  camp  guard.  At  that  place 
arrested  soldiers  had  to  call  to  submit  to  the  punish- 
ment inflicted  on  them.  Among  them  were  seven  sol- 
diers  who  had  been  sentenced  to  severe  confinement 
which  consisted  in  being  tied  up  for  two  hours. 

The  officer  on  guard  ordered  us  to  tie  the  "  crim- 
inals "  to  trees  in  the  neighborhood.  Every  arrested 
soldier  had  to  furnish  for  that  purpose  the  rope  with 
which  he  cleaned  his  rifle.  The  victim  I  had  to  attend 
to  was  sapper  Lohmer,  a  good  Socialist.  I  was  to  tie 
his  hands  behind  his  back,  wind  the  loose  end  of  the  rope 
round  his  chest,  and  tie  him  with  his  back  towards  the 
tree.  In  that  position  my  comrade  was  to  stand  for 
two  hours,  exposed  to  the  mockery  of  officers  and  ser- 
geants. But  comrade  Lohmer  had  been  marching  with 
the  rest  of  us  in  a  broiling  sun  for  a  whole  day,  had  all 
night  fought  and  murdered  for  the  dear  Fatherland 
which  was  now  giving  him  thanks  by  tying  him  up  with 
a  rope. 

I  went  up  to  him  and  told  him  that  I  would  not  tie 


SOLDIERS  SHOOTING  THEIR  OWN  OFFICERS        71 

him  to  the  tree.  "  Do  it,  man,"  he  tried  to  persuade 
me ;  "  if  you  don't  do  it  another  one  will.  I  shan't  be 
cross  with  you,  you  know." — "  Let  others  do  it ;  I  won't 
fetter  you." 

The  officer,  our  old  friend  Lieutenant  Spahn,  who  was 
getting  impatient,  came  up  to  us.  "  Can't  you  see 
that  all  the  others  have  been  seen  to?  How  long  do 
you  expect  me  to  wait  ?  "  I  gave  him  a  sharp  looky 
but  did  not  answer.  Again  he  bellowed  out  the  com- 
mand to  tie  my  comrade  to  the  tree.  I  looked  at  him 
for  a  long  time  and  did  not  deign  him  worthy  of  an  an- 
swer. He  then  turned  to  the  "  criminal  "  who  told  him 
that  I  could  not  get  myself  to  do  the  job  as  we  were 
old  comrades  and  friends.  Besides,  I  did  not  want  to 
fetter  a  man  who  was  exhausted  and  dead  tired. 
"  So  you  won't  do  it  ?  "  he  thundered  at  me,  and  when 
again  he  received  no  reply  —  for  I  was  resolved  not  to 
speak  another  word  to  the  fellow  —  he  hissed,  "  That 

b is  a  Red  to  the  marrow!  "     I  shall  never  in  my 

life  forget  the  look  of  thankfulness  that  Lohmer  gave 
me ;  it  rewarded  me  for  the  unpleasantness  I  had  in 
consequence  of  my  refusal.  Of  course  others  did  what 
I  refused  to  do ;  I  got  two  weeks'  confinement.  Nat- 
urally I  was  proud  at  having  been  a  man  for  once  at 
least.  As  a  comrade  I  had  remained  faithful  to  my 
mate.  Yet  I  had  gained  a  point.  They  never  ordered 
me  again  to  perform  such  duty,  and  I  was  excluded 
from  the  guard  that  day.  I  could  move  about  freely 
and  be  again  a  free  man  for  a  few  hours. 

The  evening  I  had  got  off  I  employed  to  undertake  a 
reconnoitering  expedition  through  the  surrounding 
country  in  the  company  of  several  soldiers.  We  spoke 
about  the  various  incidents  of  the  day  and  the  night, 
and,  to  the  surprise,  I  daresay,  of  every  one  of  us,  we 


72        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

discovered  that  very  little  was  left  of  the  overflowing 
enthusiasm  and  patriotism  that  had  seized  so  many 
during  the  first  days  of  the  war.  Most  of  the  soldiers 
made  no  attempt  to  conceal  the  feeling  that  we  poor 
devils  had  absolutely  nothing  to  gain  in  this  war,  that 
we  had  only  to  lose  our  lives  or,  which  was  still  worse, 
that  we  should  sit  at  some  street  corner  as  crippled 
'*  war  veterans  "  trying  to  arouse  the  pity  of  passers-by 
by  means  of  some  squeaking  organ. 

At  that  moment  it  was  already  clear  to  us  in  view  of 
the  enormous  losses  that  no  state,  no  public  benevolent 
societies  would  be  able  after  the  war  to  help  the  many 
hundreds  of  thousands  who  had  sacrificed  their  health 
for  their  "  beloved  country."  The  number  of  the  un- 
fortunate wrecks  is  too  great  to  be  helped  even  with  the 
best  of  intentions. 

Those  thoughts  which  occupied  our  minds  to  an  ever 
increasing  extent  did  not  acquire  a  more  cheerful  as- 
pect on  our  walk.  The  wounded  were  lying  every- 
where, in  stables,  in  barns,  wherever  there  was  room  for 
them.  If  the  wounds  were  not  too  severe  the  wounded 
men  were  quite  cheerful.  They  felt  glad  at  having  got 
off  so  cheaply,  and  thought  the  war  would  long  be  over 
when  they  should  be  well  again.  They  lived  by  hopes 
jjust  as  the  rest  of  us. 


SACKING    SUIPPES 

The  inhabitants  of  the  place  who  had  not  fled  were 
all  quartered  in  a  large  wooden  shed.  Their  dwelling 
places  had  almost  all  been  destroyed,  so  that  they  had 
no  other  choice  but  live  in  the  shed  that  was  offered 
them.  Only  one  little,  old  woman  sat,  bitterly  crying, 
on  the  ruins  of  her  destroyed  home,  and  nobody  could 
induce  her  to  leave  that  place. 

In  the  wooden  shed  one  could  see  women  and  men, 
youths,  children  and  old  people,  all  in  a  great  jumble. 
Many  had  been  wounded  by  bits  of  shell  or  bullets ; 
others  had  been  burned  by  the  fire.  Everywhere  one 
could  observe  the  same  terrible  misery  —  sick  mothers 
with  half-starved  babies  for  whom  there  was  no  milk 
on  hand  and  who  had  to  perish  there ;  old  people  who 
were  dying  from  the  excitement  and  terrors  of  the  last 
few  days ;  men  and  women  in  the  prime  of  their  life  who 
were  slowly  succumbing  to  their  wounds  because  there 
was  nobody  present  to  care  for  them. 

A  soldier  of  the  landwehr,  an  infantryman,  was 
standing  close  to  me  and  looked  horror-struck  at  some 
young  mothers  who  were  trying  to  satisfy  the  hunger 
of  their  babes.  "  I,  too,"  he  said  reflectively,  "  have  a 
good  wife  and  two  dear  children  at  home.  I  can  there- 
fore feel  how  terrible  it  must  be  for  the  fathers  of  these 
poor  families  to  know  their  dear  ones  are  in  the  grip  of 
a  hostile  army.      The  French  soldiers   think   us   to  be 

still  worse  barbarians  than  we  really  are,  and  spread 

73 


74        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

that  impression  through  their  letters  among  those  left 
at  home.  I  can  imagine  the  fear  in  which  they  are  of 
us  everywhere.  During  the  Boxer  rebellion  I  was  in 
China  as  a  soldier,  but  the  slaughter  in  Asia  was  child's 
play  in  comparison  to  the  barbarism  of  civilized  Euro- 
pean nations  that  I  have  had  occasion  to  witness  in 
this  war  in  friend  and  foe."  After  a  short  while  he 
continued :  "  I  belong  to  the  second  muster  of  the 
landwehr,  and  thought  that  at  my  age  of  37  it  would 
take  a  long  time  before  my  turn  came.  But  we  old  ones 
were  no  better  off  than  you  of  the  active  army  divisions 
—  sometimes  even  worse.  Just  like  you  we  were  sent 
into  action  right  from  the  beginning,  and  the  heavy 
equipment,  the  long  marches  in  the  scorching  sun  meant 
much  hardship  to  our  worn-out  proletarian  bodies  so 
that  many  amongst  us  thought  they  would  not  be  able 
to  live  through  it  all. 

"  How  often  have  I  not  wished  that  at  least  one  of 
my  children  were  a  boy?  But  to-day  I  am  glad  and 
happy  that  they  are  girls ;  for,  if  they  were  boys,  they 
would  have  to  shed  their  blood  one  day  or  spill  that  of 
others,  only  because  our  rulers  demand  it."  We  now 
became  well  acquainted  with  each  other.  Conversing 
with  him  I  got  to  know  that  dissatisfaction  was  still 
more  general  in  his  company  than  in  mine  and  that  it 
was  only  the  ruthless  infliction  of  punishment,  the  iron 
discipline,  that  kept  the  men  of  the  landwehr,  who  had 
to  think  of  wife  and  children,  from  committing  acts  of 
insubordination.  Just  as  we  were  treated  they  treated 
those  older  men  for  the  slightest  breach  of  discipline; 
they  were  tied  with  ropes  to  trees  and  telegraph  poles. 

"Dear  Fatherland,  may  peace  be  thine; 

Fast  stands  and  firm  the  Watch  on  the  Rhine." 


SACKING  SUIPPES  75 

A  company  of  the  Hessian  landwehr,  all  of  them  old 
soldiers,  were  marching  past  with  sore  feet  and  droop- 
ing heads.  They  had  probably  marched  for  a  long 
while.  Officers  were  attempting  to  liven  them  up. 
They  were  to  sing  a  song,  but  the  Hessians,  fond  of 
singing  and  good-natured  as  they  certainly  are  known 
to  be,  were  by  no  means  in  a  mood  to  sing.  "  I  tell  you 
to  sing,  you  swine ! "  the  officer  cried,  and  the  pitifully 
helpless-looking  "  swine  "  endeavored  to  obey  the  com- 
mand. Here  and  there  a  thin  voice  from  the  ranks  of 
the  overtired  men  could  be  heard  to  sing,  "  Deutschland, 
Deutschland  uber  alles,  iiber  alles  in  der  Welt." 
With  sore  feet  and  broken  energy,  full  of  disgust  with 
their  "  glorious  "  trade  of  warriors,  they  sang  that 
symphony  of  supergermanism  that  sounded  then  like 
blasphemy,  nay,  like  a  travesty  — "  Deutschland, 
Deutschland  uber  alles,  iiber  alles  in  der  Welt." 

Some  of  my  mates  who  had  watched  the  procession 
like  myself  came  up  to  me  saying,  "  Come,  let's  go  to  the 
bivouac.     Let's  sleep,  forget,  and  think  no  more." 

We  were  hungry  and,  going  "  home,"  we  caught  some 
chicken,  "  candidates  for  the  cooking  pot,"  as  we  used 
to  call  them.  They  were  eaten  half  cooked.  Then  we 
lay  down  in  the  open  and  slept  till  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning  when  we  had  to  be  ready  to  march  off.  Our 
goal  for  that  day  was  Suippes.  Before  starting  on  the 
march  an  army  order  was  read  out  to  us.  "  Soldiers," 
it  said,  "  His  Majesty,  the  Emperor,  our  Supreme  War 
Lord,  thanks  the  soldiers  of  the  Fourth  Army,  and  ex- 
presses to  all  his  imperial  thankfulness  and  apprecia- 
tion. You  have  protected  our  dear  Germany  from  the 
invasion  of  hostile  hordes.  We  shall  not  rest  until  the 
last  opponent  lies  beaten  on  the  ground,  and  before  the 
leaves  fall  from  the  trees  we  shall  be  at  home  again  as 


76        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

victors.  The  enemy  is  in  full  retreat,  and  the  Almighty 
will  continue  to  bless  our  arms." 

Having  duly  acknowledged  receipt  of  the  message  by 
giving  those  three  cheers  for  the  "  Supreme  War  Lord  " 
which  had  become  almost  a  matter  of  daily  routine,  we 
started  on  our  march  and  had  now  plenty  of  time  and 
opportunity  to  talk  over  the  imperial  "  thankfulness." 
We  were  not  quite  clear  as  to  the  "  fatherland  "  we  had 
to  "  defend "  here  in  France.  One  of  the  soldiers 
thought  the  chief  thing  was  that  God  had  blessed  our 
arms,  whereupon  another  one,  who  had  been  president 
of  a  freethinking  religious  community  in  his  native  city 
for  many  a  long  year,  replied  that  a  religious  man  who 
babbled  such  stuff  was  committing  blasphemy  if  he  had 
ever  taken  religion  seriously. 

All  over  the  fields  and  in  the  ditches  lay  the  dead 
bodies  of  soldiers  whose  often  sickening  wounds  were 
terrible  to  behold.  Thousands  of  big  flies,  of  which 
that  part  of  the  country  harbors  great  swarms,  were 
covering  the  human  corpses  which  had  partly  begun  to 
decompose  and  were  spreading  a  stench  that  took  away 
one's  breath.  In  between  these  corpses,  in  the  burning 
sun,  the  poor,  helpless  refugees  were  camping,  because 
they  were  not  allowed  to  use  the  road  as  long  as  the 
troops  were  occupying  it.  But  when  were  the  roads 
not  occupied  by  troops! 

Once,  when  resting,  we  chanced  to  observe  a  fight  be- 
tween three  French  and  four  German  aeroplanes.  We 
heard  above  us  the  well-known  hum  of  a  motor  and  saw 
three  French  and  two  German  machines  approach  one 
another.  All  of  them  were  at  a  great  altitude  when  all 
at  once  we  heard  the  firing  of  machine-guns  high  up  in 
the  air.  The  two  Germans  were  screwing  themselves 
higher  up,  unceasingly  peppered  by  their  opponents, 


SACKING  SUIPPES  77 

and  were  trying  to  get  above  the  Frenchmen.  But  the 
French,  too,  rose  in  great  spirals  in  order  to  frustrate 
the  intentions  of  the  Germans.  Suddenly  one  of  the 
German  flying-men  threw  a  bomb  and  set  alight  a 
French  machine  which  at  the  same  time  was  enveloped 
in  flames  and,  toppling  over,  fell  headlong  to  the  ground 
a  few  seconds  after.  Burning  rags  came  slowly  flutter- 
ing to  the  ground  after  it.  Unexpectedly  two  more 
strong  German  machines  appeared  on  the  scene,  and 
then  the  Frenchmen  took  to  flight  immediately,  but  not 
before  they  had  succeeded  in  disabling  a  German  Rura- 
pler-Taube  by  machine-gun  fire  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  damaged  aeroplane  had  to  land  in  a  steep  glide. 
The  other  undamaged  machines  disappeared  on  the 
horizon. 

That  terrible  and  beautiful  spectacle  had  taken  a  few 
minutes.  It  was  a  small,  unimportant  episode,  which 
had  orphaned  a  few  children,  widowed  a  woman  — some- 
where in  France. 

In  the  evening  we  reached  the  little  town  of  Suippes 
after  a  long  march.  The  captain  said  to  us,  "  Here  in 
Suippes  there  are  swarms  of  franctireurs.  We  shall 
therefore  not  take  quarters  but  camp  in  the  open. 
Anybody  going  to  the  place  has  to  take  his  rifle  and 
ammunition  with  him."  After  recuperating  a  little  we 
went  to  the  place  in  order  to  find  something  to  eat. 
Fifteen  dead  civilians  were  lying  in  the  middle  of  the 
road.  They  were  inhabitants  of  the  place.  Why  they 
had  been  shot  we  could  not  learn.  A  shrugging  of  the 
shoulders  was  the  only  answer  one  could  get  from 
anybody.  The  place  itself,  the  houses,  showed  no  ex- 
ternal damage. 

I  have  never  in  war  witnessed  a  greater  general  pil- 
laging than  here  in  Suippes.     It  was  plain  that  we  had 


78        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

to  live  and  had  to  have  food.  The  inhabitants  and 
storekeepers  having  fled,  it  was  often  impossible  to  pay 
for  the  things  one  needed.  Men  simply  went  into  some 
store,  put  on  socks  and  underwear,  and  left  their  old 
things;  they  then  went  to  some  other  store,  took  the 
food  they  fancied,  and  hied  themselves  to  a  wine-cellar 
to  provide  themselves  to  their  hearts'  content.  The 
men  of  the  ammunition  trains  who  had  their  quarters  in 
the  town,  as  also  the  men  of  the  transport  and  am- 
bulance corps  and  troopers  went  by  the  hundred  to 
search  the  homes  and  took  whatsoever  pleased  them 
most.  The  finest  and  largest  stores  —  Suippes  sup- 
plied a  large  tract  of  country  and  had  comparatively 
extensive  stores  of  all  descriptions  —  were  empty  shells 
in  a  few  hours.  Whilst  men  were  looking  for  one  thing 
others  were  ruined  and  broken.  The  drivers  of  the 
munition  and  transport  trains  dragged  away  whole 
sacks  full  of  the  finest  silk,  ladies'  garments,  linen, 
boots,  and  shoved  them  in  their  shot-case.  Children's 
shoes,  ladies'  shoes,  everything  was  taken  along,  even 
if  it  had  to  be  thrown  away  again  soon  after.  Later 
on,  when  the  field-post  was  running  regularly,  many 
things  acquired  in  that  manner  were  sent  home.  But 
all  parcels  did  not  reach  their  destination  on  account  of 
the  unreliable  service  of  the  field-post,  and  the  maximum 
weight  that  could  be  sent  proved  another  obstacle. 
Thus  a  pair  of  boots  had  to  be  divided  and  each  sent  in 
a  separate  parcel  if  they  were  to  be  dispatched  by  field- 
post.  One  of  our  sappers  had  for  weeks  carried  about 
with  him  a  pair  of  handsome  boots  for  his  fiancee  and 
then  had  them  sent  to  her  in  two  parcels.  However, 
the  field-post  did  not  guarantee  delivery ;  and  thus  the 
war  bride  got  the  left  boot,  and  not  the  right  one. 
An    important    chocolate    factory    was    completely 


SACKING  SUIPPES  79 

sacked,  chocolates  and  candy  lay  about  in  heaps  trod- 
den under  foot.  Private  dwellings  that  had  been  left 
by  their  inhabitants  were  broken  into,  the  wine-cellars 
were  cleared  of  their  contents,  and  the  windows  were 
smashed  —  a  speciality  of  the  cavalry. 

As  we  had  to  spend  the  night  in  the  open  we  tried  to 
procure  some  blankets,  and  entered  a  grocer's  store  in 
the  market-place.  The  store  had  been  already  partly 
demolished.  The  living-rooms  above  it  had  remained, 
however,  untouched,  and  all  the  rooms  had  been  left 
unlocked.  It  could  be  seen  that  a  woman  had  had 
charge  of  that  house ;  everything  was  arranged  in  such 
a  neat  and  comfortable  way  that  one  was  immediately 
seized  by  the  desire  to  become  also  possessed  of  such  a 
lovely  little  nest.  But  all  was  surpassed  by  a  room  of 
medium  size  where  a  young  lady  had  apparently  lived. 
Only  with  great  reluctance  we  entered  that  sanctum. 
To  our  surprise  we  found  hanging  on  the  wall  facing 
the  door  a  caustic  drawing  on  wood  bearing  the  legend 
in  German :  "  Ehret  die  Frauen,  sie  flechten  und  weben 
himmlische  Rosen  ins  irdische  Leben."  (Honor  the 
women,  they  work  and  they  weave  heavenly  roses  in  life's 
short  reprieve.)  The  occupant  was  evidently  a  young 
bride,  for  the  various  pieces  of  the  trousseau,  trimmed 
with  dainty  blue  ribbons,  could  be  seen  in  the  wardrobes 
in  a  painfully  spick  and  span  condition.  All  the  ward- 
robes were  unlocked.  We  did  not  touch  a  thing.  We 
were  again  reminded  of  the  cruelty  of  war.  Millions 
it  turned  into  beggars  in  one  night ;  the  fondest  hopes 
and  desires  were  destroyed.  When,  the  next  morn- 
ing, we  entered  the  house  again,  driven  by  a  presenti- 
ment of  misfortune,  we  found  everything  completely  de- 
stroyed. Real  barbarians  had  been  raging  here,  who 
had  lost  that  thin  varnish  with  which  civilization  covers 


80        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

the  brute  in  man.  The  whole  trousseau  of  the  young 
bride  had  been  dragged  from  the  shelves  and  was  still 
partly  covering  the  floor.  Portraits,  photographs, 
looking-glasses,  all  lay  broken  on  the  floor.  Three  of 
us  had  entered  the  room,  and  all  three  of  us  clenched 
our  fists  in  helpless  rage. 

Having  received  the  command  to  remain  in  Suippes 
till  further  orders  we  could  observe  the  return  of  many 
refugees  the  next  day.  They  came  back  in  crowds  from 
the  direction  of  Chalons-sur-Marne,  and  found  a 
wretched,  dreary  waste  in  the  place  of  their  peaceful 
homes.  The  owner  of  a  dry-goods  store  was  just  re- 
turning as  we  stood  before  his  house.  He  collapsed 
before  the  door  of  his  house,  for  nothing  remained  of  his 
business.  We  went  up  to  the  man.  He  was  a  Hebrew 
and  spoke  German.  After  having  somewhat  recovered 
his  self-possession  he  told  us  that  his  business  had  con- 
tained goods  to  the  value  of  more  than  8000  francs, 
and  said :  "  If  the  soldiers  had  only  taken  what  they 
needed  I  should  have  been  content,  for  I  expected  noth- 
ing less ;  but  I  should  have  never  believed  of  the  Ger- 
mans that  they  would  destroy  all  of  my  possessions." 
In  his  living-rooms  there  was  not  even  a  cup  to  be  found. 
The  man  had  a  wife  and  five  children,  but  did  not  know 
where  they  were  at  that  time.  And  his  fate  was  shared 
by  uncounted  others,  here  and  elsewhere. 

I  should  tell  an  untruth  if  I  were  to  pretend  that  his 
misery  touched  me  very  deeply.  It  is  true  that  the  best 
among  us  —  and  those  were  almost  always  the  men  who 
had  been  active  in  the  labor  movement  at  home,  who 
hated  war  and  the  warrior's  trade  from  the  depth  of 
their  soul  —  were  shaken  out  of  their  lethargy  and  in- 
difference by  some  especially  harrowing  incident,  but 
the  mass  was  no  longer  touched  even  by  great  tragedies. 


SACKING  SUIPPES  81 

When  a  man  is  accustomed  to  step  over  corpses  with  a 
cold  smile  on  his  lips,  when  he  has  to  face  death  every 
minute  day  and  night,  he  gradually  loses  that  finer  feel- 
ing for  human  things  and  humanity.  Thus  it  must  not 
surprise  one  that  soldiers  could  laugh  and  joke  in  the 
midst  of  awful  devastation,  that  they  brought  wine  to  a 
concert  room  in  which  there  was  a  piano  and  an  electric 
organ,  and  had  a  joyful  time  with  music  and  wine. 
They  drank  till  they  were  unconscious ;  they  drank  with 
sergeants  and  corporals,  pledging  "  brotherhood  " ;  and 
they  rolled  arm  in  arm  through  the  streets  with  their 
new  **  comrades." 

The  officers  would  see  nothing  of  this,  for  they  did 
not  behave  much  better  themselves,  even  if  they  knew 
how  to  arrange  things  in  such  a  manner  that  their 
"  honor  "  did  not  entirely  go  to  the  devil.  The  "  gen- 
tleman "  of  an  officer  sends  his  orderly  out  to  buy  him 
twenty  bottles  of  wine,  but  as  he  does  not  give  his  serv- 
ant any  money  wherewith  to  "  buy,"  the  orderly  obeys 
the  command  the  best  he  can.  He  knows  that  at  any 
rate  he  must  not  come  back  without  the  wine.  In  that 
manner  the  officers  provide  themselves  with  all  possible 
comforts  without  losing  their  "  honor."  We  had  five 
officers  in  our  company  who  for  themselves  alone  needed 
a  wagon  with  four  horses  for  transporting  their  bag- 
gage. As  for  ourselves,  the  soldiers,  our  knapsack  was 
still  too  large  for  the  objects  we  needed  for  our  daily 
life. 


XI 


MARCHING    TO    THE    BATTLE    OF    THE   MAENE INTO 

THE    TRAP 

A  large  proportion  of  the  "  gentlemen,"  our  officers, 
regarded  war  as  a  pleasant  change  to  their  enchanting 
social  life  in  the  garrison  towns,  and  knew  exactly  (at 
least  as  far  as  the  officers  of  my  company  were  con- 
cerned) how  to  preserve  their  lives  as  long  as  possible 
"  in  the  interest  of  the  Fatherland."  When  I  buried  the 
hatchet,  fourteen  months  after,  our  company  had  lost 
three  times  its  original  strength,  but  no  fresh  supply 
of  officers  had  as  yet  become  necessary ;  we  had  not  lost 
a  single  officer.  In  Holland  I  got  to  know,  some  months 
later,  that  after  having  taken  my  "  leave  "  they  were 
still  very  well  preserved.  One  day  at  Rotterdam,  I  saw 
a  photo  in  the  magazine,  Die  Woche,  showing  "  Six 
members  of  the  1st.  Company  of  the  Sapper  Regiment 
No.  30  with  the  Iron  Cross  of  the  1st.  Class."  The 
picture  had  been  taken  at  the  front,  and  showed  the  five 
officers  and  Corporal  Bock  with  the  Iron  Cross  of  the 
1st.  Class.  Unfortunately  Scherl  x  did  not  betray 
whether  those  gentlemen  had  got  the  distinction  for  hav- 
ing preserved  their  lives  for  further  service. 

We  spent  the  following  night  at  the  place,  and  then 
had  to  camp  again  in  the  open,  "  because  the  place 
swarmed  with  franctireurs."  In  reality  no  franctireurs 
could  be  observed,  so  that  it  was  quite  clear  to  us  that 

i  A  proprietor  of  many  German  sensational  newspapers. 

82 


TO  THE  MARNE  —  INTO  THE  TRAP  83 

it  was  merely  an  attempt  to  arouse  again  our  resent- 
ment against  the  enemy  which  was  dying  down.  They 
knew  very  well  that  a  soldier  is  far  more  tractable  and 
pliant  when  animated  by  hatred  against  the  "  enemy." 

The  next  day  Chalons-sur-Marne  was  indicated  as 
the  next  goal  of  our  march.  That  day  was  one  of  the 
most  fatiguing  we  experienced.  Early  in  the  morning 
already,  when  we  started,  the  sun  was  sending  down  its 
fiery  shafts.  Suippes  is  about  21  miles  distant  from 
Chalons-sur-Marne.  The  distance  would  not  have  been 
the  worst  thing,  in  spite  of  the  heat.  We  had  marched 
longer  distances  before.  But  that  splendid  road  from 
Suippes  to  Chalons  does  not  deviate  an  inch  to  the  right 
or  left,  so  that  the  straight,  almost  endless  seeming 
road  lies  before  one  like  an  immense  white  snake.  How- 
ever far  we  marched  that  white  ribbon  showed  no  end- 
ing, and  when  one  looked  round,  the  view  was  exactly 
the  same.  During  the  whole  march  we  only  passed  one 
little  village ;  otherwise  all  was  bare  and  uncultivated. 

Many  of  us  fainted  or  got  a  heat-stroke  and  had  to 
be  taken  along  by  the  following  transport  column.  We 
could  see  by  the  man}7  dead  soldiers,  French  and  Ger- 
man, whose  corpses  were  lying  about  all  along  the  road, 
that  the  troops  who  had  passed  here  before  us  had 
met  with  a  still  worse  fate. 

We  had  finished  half  of  our  march  without  being  al- 
lowed to  take  a  rest.  I  suppose  the  "  old  man  "  was 
afraid  the  machine  could  not  be  set  going  again  if  once 
our  section  had  got  a  chance  to  rest  their  tired  limbs 
on  the  ground,  and  thus  we  crawled  along  dispirited 
like  a  lot  of  snails,  carrying  the  leaden  weight  of  the 
"  monkey  "  in  the  place  of  a  house.  The  monotony  of 
the  march  was  only  somewhat  relieved  when  we  reached 
the  immense  camp  of  Chalons.      It  is  one  of  the  greatest 


84,        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

military  camps  in  France.  Towards  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  we  beheld  Chalons  in  the  distance,  and 
when  we  halted  towards  four  o'clock  in  an  orchard  out- 
side the  town,  all  of  us,  without  an  exception,  fell  down 
exhausted. 

The  field  kitchen,  too,  arrived,  but  nobody  stirred  for 
a  time  to  fetch  food.  We  ate  later  on,  and  then  de- 
sired to  go  to  the  town  to  buy  several  things,  chiefly, 
I  daresay,  tobacco  which  we  missed  terribly.  Nobody 
was  allowed  however,  to  leave  camp.  We  were  told  that 
it  was  strictly  forbidden  to  enter  the  town.  "  Chalons," 
so  the  tale  went,  had  paid  a  war  contribution,  and 
nobody  could  enter  the  town.  With  money  you  can 
do  everything,  even  in  war.  Mammon  had  saved 
Chalons  from  pillage. 

Far  away  could  be  heard  the  muffled  roar  of  the  guns. 
We  had  the  presentiment  that  our  rest  would  not  be  of 
long  duration.  The  rolling  of  the  gun  firing  became 
louder  and  louder,  but  we  did  not  know  yet  that  a 
battle  had  started  here  that  should  turn  out  a  very 
unfortunate  one  for  the  Germans  —  the  five  days'  battle 
of  the  Marne. 

At  midnight  we  were  aroused  by  an  alarm,  and  half 
an  hour  later  we  were  on  the  move  already.  The  cool 
air  of  the  night  refreshed  us,  and  we  got  along  fairly 
rapidly  in  spite  of  our  exhaustion.  At  about  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  we  reached  the  village  of  Chepy. 
At  that  place  friend  Mammon  had  evidently  not  been  so 
merciful  as  at  Chalons,  for  Chepy  had  been  thoroughly 
sacked.  We  rested  for  a  short  time,  and  noticed  with 
a  rapid  glance  that  preparations  were  just  being  made 
to  shoot  two  franctireurs.  The}'  were  little  peasants 
who  were  alleged  to  have  hidden  from  the  Germans  a 
French  machine-gun  and  its  crew.     The  sentence  was 


TO  THE  MARNE  —  INTO  THE  TRAP  85 

carried  out.  One  was  never  at  a  loss  in  finding  reasons 
for  a  verdict.  And  the  population  had  been  shown  who 
their  "  master  "  was. 

The  little  village  of  Pogny  half-way  between  Chalons- 
sur-Marne  and  Vitry-le-Francois,  had  fared  no  better 
than  Chepy,  as  we  observed  when  we  entered  it  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  We  had  now  got  considerably 
nearer  to  the  roaring  guns.  The  slightly  wounded  who 
were  coming  back  and  the  men  of  the  ammunition  col- 
umns told  us  that  a  terrible  battle  was  raging  to  the 
west  of  Vitry-le-Francois.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon we  reached  Vitry-le-Francois,  after  a  veritable 
forced  march.  The  whole  town  was  crowded  with 
wounded ;  every  building,  church,  and  school  was  full  of 
wounded  soldiers.     The  town  itself  was  not  damaged. 

Here  things  must  have  looked  very  bad  for  the  Ger- 
mans for,  without  allowing  us  a  respite,  we  were  ordered 
to  enter  the  battle  to  the  west  of  Vitry-le-Francois. 
We  had  approached  the  firing  line  a  little  more  than 
two  miles  when  we  got  within  reach  of  the  enemy's  cur- 
tain of  fire.  A  terrific  hail  of  shells  was  ploughing  up 
every  foot  of  ground.  Thousands  of  corpses  of  Ger- 
man soldiers  were  witnesses  of  the  immense  losses  the 
Germans  had  suffered  in  bringing  up  all  available  re- 
serves. The  French  tried  their  utmost  to  prevent  the 
Germans  from  bringing  in  their  reserves,  and  increased 
their  artillery  fire  to  an  unheard-of  violence. 

It  seemed  impossible  for  us  to  break  through  that 
barricade  of  fire.  Hundreds  of  shells  were  bursting 
very  minute.  We  were  ordered  to  pass  that  hell 
singly  and  at  a  running  pace.  We  were  lying  on  the 
ground  and  observed  how  the  first  of  our  men  tried 
to  get  through.  Some  ran  forward  like  mad,  not  heed- 
ing the  shells  that  were  bursting  around  them,  and  got 


86        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

through.  Others  were  entirely  buried  by  the  dirt  dug 
up  by  the  shells  or  were  torn  to  pieces  by  shell  splinters. 
Two  men  had  scarcely  reached  the  line  when  they 
were  struck  by  a  bull's-eye,  i.  e.,  the  heavy  shell  exploded 
at  their  feet  leaving  nothing  of  them. 

Who  can  imagine  what  we  were  feeling  during  those 
harrowing  minutes  as  we  lay  crouching  on  the  ground 
not  quite  a  hundred  feet  away,  seeing  everything,  and 
only  waiting  for  our  turn  to  come?  One  had  entangled 
oneself  in  a  maze  of  thoughts.  Suddenly  one  of  the 
officers  would  cry,  "  The  next  one ! "  That  was  I ! 
Just  as  if  roused  out  of  a  bad  dream,  I  jump  up  and 
race  away  like  mad,  holding  the  rifle  in  my  right  hand 
and  the  bayonet  in  my  left.  I  jumped  aside  a  few 
steps  in  front  of  two  bursting  shells  and  run  into  two 
others  which  are  bursting  at  the  same  time.  I  leap 
back  several  times,  run  forward  again,  race  about 
wildly  to  find  a  gap  through  which  to  escape.  But  — 
fire  and  iron  everywhere.  Like  a  hunted  beast  one 
seeks  some  opening  to  save  oneself.  Hell  is  in  front  of 
me  and  behind  me  the  officer's  revolver,  kept  ready  to 
shoot. —  The  lumps  of  steel  fall  down  like  a  heavy 
shower  from  high  above.  Hell  and  damnation!  I 
blindly  run  and  run  and  run,  until  somebody  gets  me  by 
my  coat.  "  We're  there !  "  somebody  roars  into  my 
ear.  "  Stop!  Are  you  wounded?  Have  a  look;  per- 
haps you  are  and  don't  know  it?  "  Here  I  am  trem- 
bling all  over.  "  Sit  down ;  you  will  feel  better ;  we 
trembled  too."  Slowly  I  became  more  quiet.  One 
after  the  other  arrived ;  many  were  wounded.  We  were 
about  forty  when  the  sergeants  took  over  the  command. 
Nothing  was  again  to  be  seen  of  the  officers. 

We  proceeded  and  passed  several  German  batteries. 
Many  had  suffered  great  losses.     The  crews  were  lying 


TO  THE  MARNE  —  INTO  THE  TRAP  87 

dead  or  wounded  around  their  demolished  guns. 
Others  again  could  not  fire  as  they  had  no  more  ammu- 
nition. We  rested.  Some  men  of  the  artillery  who 
had  "  nothing  to  do  "  for  lack  of  ammunition  came  up 
to  us.  A  sergeant  asked  why  they  did  not  fire.  "  Be- 
cause we  have  used  up  all  our  ammunition,"  a  gunner 
replied.  "  O  yes,  it  would  be  quite  impossible  to  bring 
up  ammunition  through  that  curtain  of  fire."  "  It's 
not  that,"  announced  the  gunner ;  "  it's  because  there 
isn't  any  more  that  they  can't  bring  it  up ! "  And 
then  he  went  on :  "  We  started  at  Neuf  chateau  to 
drive  the  French  before  us  like  hunted  beasts ;  we 
rushed  headlong  after  them  like  savages.  Men  and 
beasts  were  used  up  in  the  heat ;  all  the  destroyed  rail- 
roads and  means  of  transportation  could  not  be  re- 
paired in  those  few  days ;  everything  was  left  in  the  con- 
dition we  found  it ;  and  in  a  wild  intoxication  of  victory 
we  ventured  to  penetrate  into  the  heart  of  France. 
We  rushed  on  without  thinking  or  caring,  all  the  lines 
of  communication  in  our  rear  were  interrupted  —  we 
confidently  marched  into  the  traps  the  French  set  for 
us.  Before  the  first  ammunition  and  the  other  acces- 
sories, which  had  all  to  be  transported  by  wagon,  have 
reached  us  we  shall  be  all  done  for." 

Up  to  that  time  we  had  had  blind  confidence  in  the 
invincible  strategy  of  our  "  Great  General  Staff,"  and 
now  they  told  us  this.  We  simply  did  not  believe  it. 
And  yet  it  struck  us  that  the  French  (as  was  made  clear 
by  everything  around  us)  were  in  their  own  country, 
in  the  closest  proximity  of  their  largest  depot,  Paris, 
and  were  in  possession  of  excellent  railroad  communi- 
cations. The  French  were,  besides,  maintaining  a  ter- 
rible artillery  fire  with  guns  of  such  a  large  size  as  had 
never  yet  been  used  by  them.     All  that  led  to  the  con- 


88        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

elusion  that  they  had  taken  up  positions  prepared  long 
before,  and  that  the  French  guns  had  been  placed  in 
such  a  manner  that  we  could  not  reach  them. 

In  spite  of  all  we  continued  to  believe  that  the  gun- 
ner had  seen  things  in  too  dark  a  light.  We  were  soon 
to  be  taught  better. 


XII 

AT  THE  MAENE IN  THE  MAW  OF  DEATH 

We  got  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  line  of  defense, 
and  were  received  by  a  rolling  fire  from  the  machine- 
guns.  We  went  up  to  the  improvised  trenches  that 
were  to  protect  us,  at  the  double-quick.  It  was  rain- 
ing hard.  The  fields  around  were  covered  with  dead 
and  wounded  men  who  impeded  the  work  of  the  de- 
fenders. Many  of  the  wounded  contracted  tetanus  in 
consequence  of  contact  with  the  clayey  soil,  for  most 
of  them  had  not  been  bandaged.  They  all  begged  for 
water  and  bread,  but  we  had  none  ourselves.  In  fact, 
they  implored  us  to  give  them  a  bit  of  bread.  They 
had  been  in  that  hell  for  two  days  without  having  eaten 
a  mouthful. 

We  had  scarcely  been  shown  our  places  when  the 
French  began  to  attack  in  mass  formation.  The  occu- 
pants of  those  trenches,  who  had  already  beaten  back 
several  of  those  attacks,  spurred  us  on  to  shoot  and 
then  began  to  fire  themselves  into  the  on-rushing  crowd 
as  if  demented.  Amidst  the  shouting  and  the  noise  one 
could  hear  the  cries  of  the  officers  of  the  infantry : 
"Fire!  Fire!  More  lively!"  We  fired  until  the 
barrels  of  our  rifles  became  quite  hot.  The  enemy 
turned  to  flee.  The  heap  of  victims  lying  between  us 
and  our  opponents  had  again  been  augmented  by  hun- 
dreds.    The  attack  had  been  beaten  back. 

It  was  dark,  and  it  rained   and  rained.     From   all 

89 


90        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

directions  one  heard  in  the  darkness  the  wounded  call- 
ing, crying,  and  moaning.  The  wounded  we  had  with 
us  were  likewise  moaning  and  crying.  All  wanted  to 
have  their  wounds  dressed,  but  we  had  no  more  band- 
ages. We  tore  off  pieces  of  our  dirty  shirts  and 
placed  the  rags  on  those  sickening  wounds.  Men  were 
dying  one  after  the  other.  There  were  no  doctors,  no 
bandages ;  we  had  nothing  whatever.  You  had  to  help 
the  wounded  and  keep  the  French  off  at  the  same  time. 
It  was  an  unbearable,  impossible  state  of  things.  It 
rained  harder  and  harder.  We  were  wet  to  our  skins. 
We  fired  blindly  into  the  darkness.  The  rolling  fire  of 
rifles  increased,  then  died  away,  then  increased  again. 
We  sappers  were  placed  among  the  infantry.  My 
neighbor  gave  me  a  dig  in  the  ribs.  "  I  say,"  he  called 
out. 

"  What  do  you  want  ?  "  I  asked. 

"Who  are  you?" 

"  A  sapper." 

"  Come  here,"  he  hissed.  "  It  gives  you  an  uncanny 
feeling  to  be  alone  in  this  hell  of  a  night.  Why  are 
you  here  too?  —  They'll  soon  come  again,  those  over 
there ;  then  there'll  be  fine  fun  again.  Do  you  hear  the 
others  cry?  " 

He  laughed.  Suddenly  he  began  again :  "  I  al- 
ways shoot  at  those  until  they  leave  off  crying  —  that's 
great  fun." 

Again  he  laughed,  that  time  more  shrilly  than  before. 

I  knew  what  was  the  matter.  He  had  become  in- 
sane. A  man  passed  with  ammunition.  I  begged  him 
to  go  at  once  and  fetch  the  section  leader.  The  leader, 
a  lieutenant  of  the  infantry,  came  up.  I  went  to  meet 
him  and  told  him  that  my  neighbor  was  continually 
firing  at  the  wounded,  was  talking  nonsense,  and  was 


AT  THE  MARNE  — IN  THE  MAW  OF  DEATH        91 

probably  insane.  The  lieutenant  placed  himself  be- 
tween us.  "  Can  you  see  anything?  "  he  asked  the 
other  man.  "What?  See?  No;  but  I  hear  them 
moaning  and  crying,  and  as  soon  as  I  hit  one  —  well,  he 
is  quiet,  he  goes  to  sleep  — "  The  lieutenant  nodded 
at  me.  He  took  the  gun  away  from  the  man.  But  the 
latter  snatched  it  quickly  away  again  and  jumped  out 
of  the  trench.  From  there  he  fired  into  the  crowd  of 
wounded  men  until,  a  few  seconds  after,  he  dropped 
down  riddled  by  several  bullets. 

The  drama  had  only  a  few  spectators.  It  was 
scarcely  over  when  it  was  forgotten  again.  That  was 
no  place  to  become  sentimental.  We  continued  shoot- 
ing without  any  aim.  The  crying  of  the  wounded  be- 
came louder  and  louder.  Why  was  that  so?  Those 
wounded  men,  lying  between  the  two  fighting  lines, 
were  exposed  to  the  aimless  fire  of  both  sides.  Nobody 
could  help  them,  for  it  would  have  been  madness  to 
venture  between  the  lines.  Louder  and  more  imploring 
became  the  voices  that  were  calling  out,  "  Stretcher- 
bearer  !  Help !  Help  !  Water !  "  For  an  answer  they 
got  at  most  a  curse  or  a  malediction. 

Our  trench  was  filled  with  water  for  about  a  foot  — 
water  and  mud.  The  dead  and  wounded  lay  in  that 
mire  where  they  had  dropped.  We  had  to  make  room. 
So  we  threw  the  dead  out  of  the  trench.  At  one  o'clock 
in  the  night  people  came  with  stretchers  and  took  away 
part  of  the  wounded.  But  there  was  no  help  at  all  for 
the  poor  fellows  between  the  lines. 

To  fill  Hie  cup  of  misery  we  received  orders,  in  the 
course  of  the  night,  to  attack  the  enemy's  lines  at  4:15 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  At  the  time  fixed,  in  a  pouring 
rain,  we  got  ready  for  storming.  Received  by  a  terri- 
ble fire   from    the  machine-guns   we  had   to   turn  back 


92        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

half-way.  Again  we  had  sacrificed  uselessly  a  great 
number  of  men.  Scarcely  had  we  arranged  ourselves 
again  in  our  trench  when  the  French  began  a  new 
attack.  They  got  as  far  as  three  yards  from  our 
trenches  when  their  attack  broke  down  under  our  fire. 
They,  too,  had  to  go  back  with  enormous  losses.  Three 
times  more  the  French  attacked  within  two  hours,  each 
time  suffering  great  losses  and  achieving  not  the  slight- 
est success. 

We  did  not  know  what  to  do.  If  help  did  not  arrive 
soon  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  maintain  our  posi- 
tion. We  were  tormented  by  hunger  and  thirst,  were 
wet  to  the  skin,  and  tired  enough  to  drop  down.  At 
ten  o'clock  the  French  attacked  a  fourth  time.  They 
came  up  in  immense  masses.  Our  leaders  recognized  at 
last  the  danger  in  which  we  were  and  withdrew  us.  We 
retreated  in  waves  abandoning  the  wounded  and  our 
material.  By  exerting  our  whole  strength  we  suc- 
ceeded in  saving  the  machine-guns  and  ammunition. 
We  went  back  a  thousand  yards  and  established  our- 
selves again  in  old  trenches.  The  officers  called  to  us 
that  we  should  have  to  stay  there  whatever  happened ; 
reinforcements  would  soon  come  up.  The  machine-guns 
were  in  their  emplacements  in  a  jiffy.  Our  opponents, 
who  were  following  us,  were  immediately  treated  to  a 
hail  of  bullets.  Their  advance  stopped  at  once.  En- 
couraged by  that  success  we  continued  firing  more 
wildly  than  ever  so  that  the  French  were  obliged  to 
seek  cover.  The  reinforcements  we  had  been  promised 
did  not  arrive.  Some  800  yards  behind  us  were  six 
German  batteries  which,  however,  maintained  but  a 
feeble  fire. 

An  officer  of  the  artillery  appeared  in  our  midst 
and   asked   the   commander  of   our  section  whether  it 


AT  THE  MARNE  —  IN  THE  MAW  OF  IJEATH         93 

would  not  be  wise  to  withdraw  the  batteries.  He  said 
he  had  been  informed  by  telephone  that  the  whole  Ger- 
man line  was  wavering.  Before  the  commander  had 
time  to  answer  another  attack  in  mass  formation  took 
place,  the  enemy  being  five  or  seven  times  as  numerous 
as  we  were.  As  if  by  command,  we  quitted  our  position 
without  having  been  told  to  do  so,  completely  demor- 
alized ;  we  retired  in  full  flight,  leaving  the  six  batteries 
(36  guns)  to  the  enemy.  Our  opponent  had  ceased 
his  curtain  of  fire  fearing  to  endanger  his  own  advanc- 
ing troops.  The  Germans  used  that  moment  to  bring 
into  battle  reinforcements  composed  of  a  medley  of  all 
arms.  Portions  of  scattered  infantry,  dismounted 
cavalry,  sappers  without  a  lord  and  master,  all  had 
been  drummed  together  to  fill  the  ranks.  Apparently 
there  were  no  longer  an\r  proper  complete  reserve  for- 
mations on  that  day  of  battle. 

Again  we  got  the  order,  "  Turn !  Attention ! " 
The  unequal  fight  started  again.  We  observed  how  the 
enemy  made  preparations  to  carry  off  the  captured 
guns.  We  saw  him  advance  to  the  assault.  He  re- 
ceived us  with  the  bayonet.  We  fought  like  wild  ani- 
mals. For  minutes  there  was  bayonet  fighting  of  a 
ferocitv  that  defies  description.  We  stabbed  and  hit 
like  madmen  —  through  the  chest,  the  abdomen,  no 
matter  where.  There  was  no  semblance  of  regular 
bayonet  fighting:  that,  by  the  way,  can  only  be  prac- 
tised in  the  barracks  yard.  The  butt-ends  of  our 
rifles  swished  through  the  air.  Every  skull  that  came 
in  our  way  was  smashed  in.  We  had  lost  helmets  and 
knapsacks.  In  spite  of  his  great  numerical  superior- 
ity the  enemy  could  not  make  headway  against  our 
little  barrier  of  raving  humanity.  We  forgot  all 
around  us  and  fought  bloodthirstily  without  any  cal- 


94        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

culation.  A  portion  of  our  fellows  had  broken  through 
the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  and  fought  for  the  possession 
of  the  guns. 

Our  opponent  recognized  the  danger  that  was  threat- 
ening him  and  retired,  seeking  with  all  his  might  to  re- 
tain the  captured  guns.  We  did  not  allow  ourselves 
to  be  shaken  off,  and  bayoneted  the  retiring  foes  one 
after  the  other.  But  the  whole  mass  of  the  enemy 
gathered  again  round  the  guns.  Every  gun  was  sur- 
rounded by  corpses,  every  minute  registered  numerous 
victims.  The  artillery  who  took  part  in  the  fight  at- 
tempted to  remove  the  breech-blocks  of  the  guns.  To 
my  right,  around  the  third  gun,  three  Germans  were 
still  struggling  with  four  Frenchmen;  all  the  others 
were  lying  on  the  ground  dead  or  wounded.  Near  that 
one  gun  were  about  seventy  dead  or  wounded  men.  A 
sapper  could  be  seen  before  the  mouth  of  the  gun. 
With  astonishing  coolness  he  was  stuffing  into  the 
mouth  of  that  gun  one  hand  grenade  after  another. 
He  then  lit  the  fuse  and  ran  away.  Friends  and 
enemies  were  torn  into  a  thousand  shreds  by  the  terrible 
explosion  that  followed.  The  gun  was  entirely  de- 
molished. Seventy  or  eighty  men  had  slaughtered  each 
other  for  nothing  —  absolutely  nothing. 

After  a  struggle  lasting  nearly  one  hour  all  the  guns 
were  again  in  our  possession.  Who  can  imagine  the 
enormous  loss  of  human  lives  with  which  those  lost 
guns  had  been  recaptured !  The  dead  and  wounded, 
infantry,  cavalry,  sappers  and  artillery,  together  with 
the  Frenchmen,  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  them,  were 
covering  the  narrow  space,  that  comparatively  small 
spot  which  had  been  the  scene  of  the  tragedy. 

We  were  again  reinforced,  that  time  by  four  regular 
companies  of  infantry,  which  had  been  taken  from  an- 


AT  THE  MARNE  —  IN  THE  MAW  OF  DEATH        95 

other  section  of  the  battle-field.  Though  one  takes 
part  in  everything,  one's  view  as  an  individual  is  very 
limited,  and  one  has  no  means  of  informing  oneself 
about  the  situation  in  general.  Here,  too,  we  found 
ourselves  in  a  similar  situation.  But  those  reinforce- 
ments composed  of  all  arms,  and  the  later  arrivals,  who 
had  been  taken  from  a  section  just  as  severely  threat- 
ened as  our  own,  gave  us  the  presentiment  that  we 
could  only  resist  further  attacks  if  fresh  troops  ar- 
rived soon.  If  only  we  could  get  something  to  quiet  the 
pangs  of  hunger  and  that  atrocious  thirst ! 

The  horses  of  the  guns  now  arrived  at  a  mad  gallop 
to  take  away  the  guns.  At  the  same  moment  the 
enemy's  artillery  opened  a  murderous  fire,  with  all 
sizes  of  guns,  on  that  column  of  more  than  thirty  teams 
that  were  racing  along.  Confusion  arose.  The  six 
horses  of  the  various  teams  reared  and  fled  in  all  di- 
rections, drawing  the  overturned  limbers  behind  them 
with  wheels  uppermost.  Some  of  the  maddest  animals 
ran  straight  into  the  hottest  fire  to  be  torn  to  pieces 
together  with  their  drivers.  Then  our  opponent  di- 
rected his  fire  on  the  battery  positions  which  were  also 
our  positions.  We  had  no  other  choice  —  we  had 
either  to  advance  or  retire.  Retire?  No!  The  order 
was  different.  We  were  to  recapture  our  lost  first 
positions,  now  occupied  by  the  French,  who  were  now 
probably  getting  ready  for  another  attack.  Had  we 
not  received  fresh  food  for  cannon  so  that  the  mad 
dance  could  begin  again?  We  advanced  across  a  field 
covered  with  thousands  upon  thousands  of  torn  and 
bleeding  human  bodies. 

No  shot  was  fired.  Only  the  enemy's  artillery  was 
still  bombarding  the  battery  positions.  We  were  still 
receiving   no   fire   from    the   artillery;   neither   did   the 


96       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

enemy's  infantry  fire  upon  us.  That  looked  suspicious ; 
we  knew  what  was  coming.  We  advanced  farther  and 
farther  without  being  molested.  Suddenly  we  found 
ourselves  attacked  by  an  army  of  machine-guns.  An 
indescribable  hail  of  bullets  was  poured  into  us.  We 
threw  ourselves  to  the  ground  and  sought  cover  as 
well  as  we  could.  "  Jump  forward !  March,  march !  " 
Again  we  ran  to  meet  our  fate.  We  had  lost  al- 
ready more  than  a  third  of  our  men.  We  halted  again, 
exhausted.  Scarcely  had  we  had  time  to  take  up  a 
position  when  we  were  attacked  both  in  front  and  the 
flank.  We  had  no  longer  strength  enough  to  withstand 
successfully  a  simultaneous  frontal  and  flank  attack. 
Besides,  we  were  being  almost  crushed  by  superior  num- 
bers. Our  left  wing  had  been  completely  cut  off,  and 
we  observed  our  people  on  that  wing  raising  their  hands 
to  indicate  that  they  considered  themselves  prisoners  of 
war.  However,  the  French  gave  no  quarter  —  exactly 
as  we  had  acted  on  a  former  occasion.  Not  a  man  of 
our  left  wing  was  spared ;  every  one  was  cut  down. 

We  in  the  center  could  give  them  no  help.  We  were 
getting  less  from  minute  to  minute.  "  Revenge  for 
Sommepy !  "  I  heard  it  ringing  in  my  ears.  The  right 
wing  turned,  drew  us  along,  and  a  wild  stampede  be- 
gan. Our  direct  retreat  being  cut  off,  we  ran  back- 
wards across  the  open  field,  every  one  for  himself,  with 
beating  hearts  that  seemed  ready  to  burst,  all  the  time 
under  the  enemy's  fire. 

After  a  long  run  we  reached  a  small  village  to  the 
northeast  of  Vitry-le-Francois.  There  we  arrived  with- 
out rifles,  helmets  or  knapsacks;  one  after  the  other. 
But  only  a  small  portion  could  save  themselves.  The 
French  took  plenty  of  booty.  All  the  guns  we  fought 
for  were  lost,  besides  several  others.     Of  the  hundreds 


AT  THE  MARNE  —  IN  THE  MAW  OF  DEATH        97 

of  soldiers  there  remained  scarcely  one  hundred.  All 
the  others  were  dead,  wounded  or  missing.     Who  knew? 

Was  that  the  terrible  German  war  machine?  Were 
those  the  cowardly,  degenerated  Frenchmen  whom  we 
had  driven  before  us  for  days?  No;  it  was  war,  ter- 
rible, horrid  war,  in  which  fortune  is  fickle.  To-day  it 
smiles  upon  you;  to-morrow  the  other  fellow's  turn 
comes. 

We  sought  to  form  up  again  in  companies.  There 
were  just  twelve  men  left  of  our  company.  Little  by 
little  more  came  up  from  all  directions  until  at  last  we 
counted  twenty.  Then  every  one  began  to  ask  ques- 
tions eagerly;  every  one  wanted  to  know  about  his 
friend,  mate,  or  acquaintance.  Nobody  could  give  an 
answer,  for  every  one  of  us  had  been  thinking  merely 
of  himself  and  of  nobody  else.  Driven  by  hunger  we 
roamed  about  the  place.  But  our  first  action  was 
drinking  water,  and  that  in  such  quantities  as  if  we 
wanted  to  drink  enough  for  a  lifetime.  We  found  noth- 
ing to  eat.  Only  here  and  there  in  a  garden  we  discov- 
ered a  few  turnips  which  we  swallowed  with  a  ravenous 
appetite  without  washing  or  even  cleaning  them  super- 
ficially. 

But  where  was  our  company?  Nobody  knew.  We 
were  the  company,  the  twenty  of  us.  And  the  officers? 
"  Somewhere,"  a  soldier  observed,  "  somewhere  in  a 
bomb-proof  shelter."  What  were  we  to  do?  We  did 
not  know.  Soon  after  a  sergeant-major  of  the  field 
gendarmes  came  up  sitting  proudly  on  his  steed. 
Those  "  defenders  of  the  Fatherland  "  have  to  see  to  it 
that  too  many  "  shirkers  "  do  not  "  loiter  "  behind  the 
front.  "  You  are  sappers,  aren't  you  ?  "  he  roared 
out.  "  What  are  you  doing  here?  30th.  Regiment?" 
He  put  a  great  many  questions  which  we  answered  as 


98       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

well  as  we  were  able  to.  "  Where  are  the  others  ?  " 
"  Over  there,"  said  a  young  Berliner,  and  pointed  to 
the  battle-field,  "  dead  or  prisoners ;  maybe  some  have 
saved  themselves  and  are  elsewhere ! "  "  It  doesn't 
matter,"  roared  out  our  fierce  sergeant-major  for  whom 
the  conversation  began  to  become  unpleasant.  "  Wait 
till  I  come  back."  "  Where  are  the  officers  ?  "  Again 
nobody  could  answer  him.  "What  are  their  names? 
I  daresay  I  shall  find  them.  Maybe  they  are  at 
Vitry  ?  "  We  gave  him  their  names  —  Captain  Menke, 
First  Lieutenant  Maier,  Lieutenants  of  the  Reserves 
Spahn,  Neesen  and  Heimbach.  He  gave  us  a  certificate 
with  which  to  prove  the  purpose  of  our  "  loitering " 
to  other  overseers  and  disappeared.  "  Let's  hope  the 
horse  stumbles  and  the  fellow  breaks  his  neck."  That 
was  our  pious  wish  which  one  of  our  chaps  sent  after 
him. 

We  went  into  one  of  the  houses  that  had  been  pillaged 
like  all  the  rest,  lay  down  on  mattresses  that  were  lying 
about  the  rooms  and  slept  —  slept  like  dormice. 


XIII 


THE    ROUT    OF    THE    MAENE 


None  of  us  knew  how  long  we  had  slept;  we  only 
knew  that  it  was  night.  Some  men  of  our  company 
had  waked  us  up.  They  had  been  looking  for  us  for 
a  long  time.  "  Come  along,"  they  said ;  "  the  old  man 
is  outside  and  making  a  hell  of  a  row.  He  has  got 
seventeen  men  together  and  is  swearing  like  a  trooper 
because  he  can't  find  you."  Drowsily  and  completely 
bereft  of  any  will-power  of  our  own  we  trudged  after 
them.  We  knew  we  were  again  being  sent  forward. 
But  we  did  not  care;  we  had  lost  all  balance.  Never 
before  had  I  noticed  such  indifference  on  our  part  as  on 
that  night. 

There  the  old  man  was  standing.  He  saw  us  coming 
up,  without  headgear,  the  uniforms  all  torn  to  tatters, 
and  minus  our  knapsacks.  He  received  us  with  the 
greeting,  "  Where  have  you  been,  you  boobies?  "  No- 
body answered.  What  did  we  care?  Things  could  not 
get  any  worse  than  they  were.  Though  all  of  us  re- 
sented the  wrong  done  to  us  we  all  remained  silent. 

"  Where  is  your  equipment?  —  Lost?  —  Lost? 
That's  a  fine  story.  You  rag-tag  miserable  vagabonds. 
If  they  were  all  like  you  — "  For  a  while  he  went  on  in 
that  style.  That  pretty  fellow  had  suffered  the 
"  miserable  vagabonds  "  to  go  forward  while  lie  himself 
had  been  defending  his  "  Fatherland  "  at  Vitry,  three 
or  four  miles  behind  the  front.     We  picked  out  the  best 

99 


100       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

from  among  the  rifles  that  were  lying  about,  and  soon 
we  were  again  "  ready  for  battle." 

We  were  standing  half-asleep,  leaning  on  the  barrel 
of  our  rifles  and  waiting  to  be  led  forth  again  to- 
slaughter,  when  a  shot  was  fired  right  in  our  midst. 
The  bullet  had  shattered  the  entire  right  hand  of  a 
"  spoiled  ensign,"  as  the  officers  express  themselves. 
His  hand  was  bandaged.  "  How  did  that  happen  ?  " 
asked  the  officers.  An  eyewitness  related  the  incident 
saying :  "  Like  all  of  us  he  put  his  hand  on  the 
mouth  of  the  barrel  when  it  happened;  I  did  not  see 
any  more."  "Had  he  secured  the  gun?  Don't  you 
know  that  it  is  forbidden  to  lean  with  your  hand  on  the 
mouth  of  your  rifle  and  that  you  have  been  ordered  to 
secure  your  rifle  when  it  is  loaded  ?  "  Then  turning 
to  the  "  spoiled  ensign,"  who  was  writhing  with  pain, 
he  bawled  at  him :  "  I  shall  report  you  for  punishment 
on  account  of  gross  negligence  and  self-mutilation  on 
the  battle-field!" 

We  all  knew  what  was  the  matter.  The  ensign  was 
a  sergeant,  but  a  poor  devil.  He  was  fully  aware  that 
he  had  no  career  before  him.  We  soldiers  liked  him 
because  we  knew  that  military  life  disgusted  him. 
Though  he  was  a  sergeant  he  chose  his  companions 
solely  among  the  common  soldiers.  We  would  have  di- 
vided with  him  our  last  crust  of  bread,  because  to  us 
especially,  he  behaved  like  a  fellow-man.  We  also  knew 
how  harshly  he  was  treated  by  his  superiors,  and  won- 
dered that  the  "  accident  "  had  not  happened  before. 
I  do  not  know  whether  he  was  placed  before  a  court- 
martial  later  on.  Punishments  for  self-mutilation  are 
the  order  of  the  day,  and  innumerable  men  are  being 
severely  punished.  Now  and  then  the  verdicts  are  made 
known  to  the  soldiers  at  the  front  to  serve  as  a  deter- 


THE  ROUT  OF  THE  MARNE  101 

rent.  The  people  at  home,  however,  will  get  to  hear 
very  little  of  them. 

The  captain  passed  on  the  command  to  an  officer's 
representative,  and  then  the  old  man  disappeared  again 
in  the  direction  of  Vitry.  He  spurred  on  his  steed,  and 
away  he  flew.  One  of  the  soldiers  thought  that  the 
captain's  horse  was  a  thousand  times  better  off  than  we 
were.  We  knew  it.  We  knew  that  we  were  far  below 
the  beast  and  were  being  treated  accordingly. 

We  marched  off  and  halted  at  the  northwestern  exit 
of  the  village.  There  we  met  sappers  gathered  from 
other  companies  and  battalions,  and  our  company  was 
brought  up  to  85  men.  The  officer's  representative 
then  explained  to  us  that  we  should  not  be  led  into  the 
firing  line  that  day ;  our  only  task  was  to  watch  that 
German  troops  fighting  on  the  other  side  of  the  Marne 
should  find  the  existing  temporary  bridges  in  order  in 
case  they  had  to  retreat.  We  marched  to  the  place 
where  the  Saulx  enters  the  Marne. 

So  we  marched  off  and  reached  our  destination 
towards  six  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  dead  were 
lying  in  heaps  around  us  in  every  field ;  death  had 
gathered  in  a  terrible  harvest.  We  were  lying  on  a 
wooded  height  on  our  side  of  the  Marne,  and  were  able 
to  overlook  the  country  for  many  miles  in  front  of  us. 
One  could  see  the  explosions  of  the  shells  that  were 
raining  down  by  the  thousand.  Little,  almost  nothing 
was  to  be  seen  of  the  men,  and  yet  there  were  thousands 
in  front  of  us  who  were  fighting  a  desperate  battle. 
Little  by  little  we  could  make  out  the  faint  outline  of 
the  struggle.  The  Germans  were  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  behind  the  Marne  in  front  of  us.  Near  the  banks 
of  the  Marne  large  bodies  of  German  cavalry  were  sta- 
tioned. There  were  only  two  tumble-down  bridges  con- 
structed of  make-shift  materials.      They  stood  ready  to 


102        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

be  blown  up,  and  had  plenty  of  explosive  matter 
(dynamite)  attached  to  them.  The  electrical  priming 
wires  led  to  our  position;  we  were  in  charge  of  the 
firing  apparatus.  Connected  by  telephone  we  were 
able  to  blow  up  the  bridges  in  an  instant. 

On  the  other  side  things  began  to  get  lively.  We 
saw  the  French  at  various  places  pressing  forward 
and  flowing  back  again.  The  rifle  fire  increased  con- 
tinually in  violence,  and  the  attacks  became  more  fre- 
quent. Two  hours  passed  in  that  way.  We  saw  the 
French  bringing  up  reinforcement  after  reinforcement, 
in  spite  of  the  German  artillery  which  was  maintaining 
but  a  feeble  fire.  After  a  long  pause  the  enemy  began 
to  attack  again.  The  French  came  up  in  several  lines. 
They  attacked  several  times,  and  each  time  they  had  to 
go  back  again ;  each  time  they  suffered  great  losses. 
At  about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  our  troops  at- 
tacked by  the  enemy  with  all  his  strength,  began  to  give 
ground,  slowly  at  first,  then  in  a  sort  of  flight.  Our 
exhausted  men  could  no  longer  withstand  the  blow  dealt 
with  enormous  force.  In  a  wild  stampede  all  of  them 
tried  at  the  same  time  to  reach  safety  across  the 
bridges.  The  cavalry,  too,  who  were  in  cover  near  the 
banks  of  the  river,  rushed  madly  to  the  bridges.  An 
enormous  crowd  of  men  and  beasts  got  wedged  before 
the  bridges.  In  a  trice  the  bridge  before  us  was 
thickly  covered  with  human  beings  all  of  whom  were 
trying  to  reach  the  opposite  side  in  a  mad  rush.  We 
thought  we  could  notice  the  temporary  bridge  sway 
under  its  enormous  burden.  Like  ourselves  the  officer's 
representative  could  overlook  the  whole  country.  He 
pressed  the  receiver  of  the  telephone  convulsively  to  his 
left  ear,  his  right  hand  being  on  the  firing  apparatus 
after   which   another    man   was    looking.     With   bated 


THE  ROUT  OF  THE  MARNE  103 

breath  he  gazed  fixedly  into  the  fleeing  crowds.  "  Let's 
hope  the  telephone  is  in  order,"  he  said  to  himself  at 
intervals.  He  knew  as  well  as  we  did  that  he  had  to 
act  as  soon  as  the  sharp  order  was  transmitted  by  tele- 
phone. It  was  not  much  he  had  to  do.  Directed  by 
a  movement  of  the  hand  the  man  in  charge  of  the  ap- 
paratus would  turn  a  key  that  looked  like  a  winged 
screw  —  and  all  would  be  over. 

The  crowds  were  still  rushing  across  the  bridge,  but 
nearly  half  of  our  men,  almost  the  whole  of  the  cavalry, 
were  still  on  the  other  side.  The  bridge  farther  up 
was  not  being  used  so  much  and  nearly  all  had  reached 
safety  in  that  portion  of  the  battlefield.  We  observed 
the  foremost  French  cross  that  bridge,  but  the  bridge 
remained  intact.  The  sergeant-major  who  was  in 
charge  of  the  other  apparatus  was  perplexed  as  he  re- 
ceived no  order;  so  he  blew  up  that  bridge  on  his  own 
responsibility  sending  hundreds  of  Frenchmen  to  their 
watery  grave  in  the  river  Marne. 

At  the  same  moment  the  officer's  representative  next 
to  me  received  the  command  to  blow  up  the  second  and 
last  bridge.  He  was  confused  and  hesitated  to  pass 
on  the  order.  He  saw  that  a  great  crowd  of  Germans 
were  still  on  the  other  side,  he  saw  the  struggles  of 
that  mass  of  men  in  which  every  one  was  trynig  to  be 
the  first  one  to  reach  the  bridge  and  safety  beyond.  A 
terrible  panic  ensued.  Many  soldiers  threw  themselves 
into  the  river  and  tried  to  swim  across.  The  mass  of 
soldiers  on  the  other  side,  still  numbering  several  thou- 
sands, were  pressed  harder  and  harder ;  the  telephone 
messages  were  becoming  ever  more  urgent.  All  at  once 
the  officer's  representative  jumped  up,  pushed  aside  the 
sapper  in  charge  of  the  apparatus,  and  in  the  next  sec- 
ond a  mighty  explosion   was  heard.      Bridge  and  men 


104       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

were  blown  into  the  air  for  hundreds  of  yards.  Like 
a  river  at  times  of  inundations  the  Marne  was  carrying 
away  wood  and  men,  tattered  uniforms  and  horses. 
Swimming  across  it  was  of  no  earthly  use,  and  yet  sol- 
diers kept  throwing  themselves  into  the  river. 

On  the  other  side  the  French  began  to  disarm  com- 
pletely the  German  soldiers  who  could  be  seen  standing 
there  with  hands  uplifted.  Thousands  of  prisoners, 
innumerable  horses  and  machine  guns  had  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Some  of  us  were  just  going  to 
return  with  the  firing  apparatus  which  was  now  super- 
fluous when  we  heard  the  tale  of  the  significance  of  the 
incident,  confirming  the  suspicions  of  many  a  one 
amongst  us.  An  error  had  been  committed,  that  could 
not  be  undone!  When  the  bridge  higher  up,  that  was 
being  used  to  a  smaller  degree  by  the  soldiers,  had  been 
crossed  by  the  German  troops  and  the  enemy  had  im- 
mediately begun  his  pursuit,  the  staff  of  officers  in  com- 
mand at  that  passage  intended  to  let  a  certain  number 
of  enemies  cross  the  bridge,  i.e.,  a  number  that  could 
not  be  dangerous  to  the  German  troops  who  were  in 
temporary  safety.  Those  hasty  troops  of  the  enemy 
could  not  have  received  any  assistance  after  the  bridge 
had  been  blown  up,  and  would  have  been  annihilated  or 
taken  prisoners.  For  that  reason  it  was  intended  to 
postpone  the  blowing  up  of  the  bridge. 

However,  the  sergeant-major  in  charge  of  the  firing 
apparatus  imagined,  as  his  thoughts  kept  whirling 
through  his  head,  that  the  telephone  wires  must  have 
been  destroyed,  and  blew  up  on  his  own  initiative  the 
bridge  that  was  densely  crowded  with  Frenchmen,  be- 
fore our  opponent  succeeded  in  interrupting  the  wires. 
But  at  the  same  time  the  officer's  representative  in 
charge  of  the  firing  apparatus   of  the  second  bridge 


THE  ROUT  OF  THE  MARNE         105 

received  an  order,  the  words  of  which  (as  he  later  him- 
self confessed)  were  not  at  all  clear  to  him,  threw  aside 
the  receiver,  lost  the  absolutely  necessary  assurance, 
killed  all  the  people  on  the  bridge,  and  delivered  hun- 
dreds upon  hundreds  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

We  had  no  time  to  gather  any  more  detailed  impres- 
sions, for  we  received  the  order  that  all  the  men  of  our 
company  were  to  gather  at  Vitry  before  the  cathedral. 
We  began  to  sling  our  hook  with  a  sigh  of  relief,  that 
time  a  little  more  quickly  than  ordinarily,  for  the 
enemy's  artillery  was  already  beginning  to  sweep  the 
country  systematically.  We  heard  from  wounded  men 
of  other  sections,  whom  we  met  on  the  way,  that  the 
French  had  crossed  the  Marne  already  at  various 
places.  We  discussed  the  situation  among  us,  and 
found  that  we  were  all  of  the  same  opinion.  Even  on 
Belgian  territory  we  had  suffered  heavy  losses ;  every 
day  had  demanded  its  victims ;  our  ranks  had  become 
thinner  and  thinner ;  many  companies  had  been  used  up 
entirely  and,  generally  speaking,  all  companies  had  suf- 
fered severely.  These  companies,  furnished  and  re- 
duced to  a  minimum  strength,  now  found  themselves 
opposed  to  an  enemy  excellently  provided  with  all  neces- 
saries. Our  opponent  was  continually  bringing  up 
fresh  troops,  and  we  were  becoming  fewer  every  hour. 
We  began  to  see  that  it  was  impossible  for  us  to  make  a 
stand  at  that  place.  Soldiers  of  the  various  arms  con- 
firmed again  and  again  that  things  were  looking  just 
as  bad  with  them  as  with  us,  that  the  losses  in  men  and 
material  were  truly  enormous.  I  found  myself  thinking 
of  the  "  God  of  the  Germans."  Had  He  cast  them 
aside?  I  "  thought  "  it  so  loudly  that  the  others  could 
hear  me.  "  Well,"  one  of  them  remarkrd,  "  whom  God 
wants  to  punish  He  first  strikes  with  blindness.      Per- 


106       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

haps  He  thought  of  Belgium,  of  Drucharz,  of  Sommepy, 
of  Suippes,  and  of  so  many  other  things,  and  suffered 
us  to  rush  into  this  ruin  in  our  blind  rage." 

We  reached  Vitry.  There  the  general  misery  seemed 
to  us  to  be  greater  than  outside.  There  was  not  a 
single  house  in  the  whole  town  that  was  not  overcrowded 
with  wounded  men.  Amidst  all  that  misery  pillaging 
had  not  been  forgotten.  To  make  room  for  the 
wounded  all  the  warehouses  had  been  cleared  and 
their  contents  thrown  into  the  streets.  The  soldiers  of 
the  ambulance  corps  walked  about,  and  everything  that 
was  of  value  and  that  pleased  them  they  annexed. 
But  the  worst  "  hyenas  "  of  the  battle-field  are  to  be 
found  in  the  ammunition  and  transport  trains.  The 
men  of  these  two  branches  of  the  army  have  sufficient 
room  in  their  wagons  to  store  things  away.  The  as- 
sertion is,  moreover,  proved  by  the  innumerable  confis- 
cations, by  the  German  Imperial  Post  Office,  of  soldiers' 
parcels,  all  of  them  containing  gold  rings,  chains, 
watches,  precious  stones,  etc.  The  cases  discovered  in 
that  or  any  other  way  are  closely  gone  into  and  the 
criminals  are  severely  punished,  but  it  is  well  known 
that  only  a  small  percentage  of  the  crimes  see  the  light 
of  day.  What  are  a  thousand  convictions  or  so  for  a 
hundred  thousand  crimes ! 

In  Vitry  the  marauders'  business  was  again  flourish- 
ing. The  soldiers  of  the  transport  trains,  above  all, 
are  in  no  direct  danger  in  war.  Compared  with  the 
soldiers  fighting  at  the  front  it  is  easy  for  them  to 
find  food;  besides,  it  is  they  who  transport  the  pro- 
visions of  the  troops.  They  know  that  their  lives  are 
not  endangered  directly  and  that  they  have  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  they  will  return  unscathed.  To 
them  war  is  a  business,  because  they  largely  take  pos- 


THE  ROUT  OF  THE  MARNE  107 

session  of  all  that  is  of  any  value.  We  could  therefore 
comprehend  that  they  were  enthusiastic  patriots  and 
said  quite  frankly  that  they  hoped  the  war  would  con- 
tinue for  years.  Later  on  we  knew  what  had  happened 
when  the  Emperor  had  made  one  of  his  "  rousing " 
speeches  somewhere  in  the  west  and  had  found  the 
"  troops  "  in  an  "  excellent  "  mood  and  "  full  of  fight." 
Among  that  sort  of  troops  there  were  besides  the  trans- 
port soldiers  numerous  cavalry  distributed  among  the 
various  divisions,  army  corps  staffs,  and  general  staffs. 


XIV 

THE    FLIGHT    FROM    THE    MAENE 

We  soon  reached  the  cathedral  and  reported  to  Lieu- 
tenant Spahn  whom  we  found  there.  He,  too,  had  de- 
fended his  "  Fatherland  "  in  that  town.  Clean  shaven 
and  faultlessly  dressed,  he  showed  up  to  great  advan- 
tage contrasted  with  us.  There  we  stood  in  ragged, 
dirty,  blood-stained  uniforms,  our  hair  disheveled,  with 
a  growing  beard  covered  with  clay  and  mud.  We  were 
to  wait.  That  was  all.  We  sat  down  and  gazed  at 
the  misery  around  us.  The  church  was  filled  with 
wounded  men.  Many  died  in  the  hands  of  the  medi- 
cal men.  The  dead  were  carried  out  to  make  room 
for  others.  The  bodies  were  taken  to  one  side  where 
whole  rows  of  them  were  lying  already.  We  took  the 
trouble  to  count  the  dead,  who  had  been  mostly  placed 
in  straight  rows,  and  counted  more  than  sixty.  Some 
of  them  were  in  uniforms  that  were  still  quite  good, 
whilst  our  uniforms  were  nothing  but  rags  hanging  from 
our  backs.  There  were  some  sappers  among  them,  but 
their  coats  were  not  any  better  than  our  own. 

"  Let  us  take  some  infantry  coats,"  somebody  ven- 
tured; "what's  the  difference?  A  coat  is  a  coat." 
So  we  went  and  took  the  coats  from  several  bodies  and 
tried  them  on.  Taking  off  their  clothes  was  no  easy 
job,  for  the  corpses  were  already  rigid  like  a  piece  of 
wood.  But  what  was  to  be  done?  We  could  not  run 
about  in  our  shirt-sleeves!     All  did  not  find  something 

108 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  THE  MAIIXE  109 

to  fit  them,  and  the  disappointed  ones  had  to  wait  for 
another  chance  to  turn  up.  We  also  needed  boots,  of 
course ;  but  the  corpses  lying  before  our  eyes  had  boots 
on  that  were  not  much  better  than  our  own.  They  had 
worn  theirs  as  long  as  we  had  worn  ours,  but  we  thought 
we  might  just  inspect  them  all  the  same.  We  looked 
and  found  a  pair  of  fairly  good  ones.  They  were  very 
small,  but  we  guessed  they  might  fit  one  or  the  other 
amongst  us.  Two  of  us  tried  to  remove  them.  "  But 
they  are  a  tight  fit,"  one  of  the  two  remarked.  Two 
more  came  up  to  help.  Two  were  holding  the  leg  of 
the  dead  man  while  the  two  others  tugged  at  the  boot. 
It  was  of  no  use ;  the  leg  and  the  foot  were  so  rigid 
that  it  was  found  impossible  to  get  the  boot  off.  "  Let 
it  go,"  one  of  those  holding  the  leg  remarked,  "  you 
will  sooner  pull  off  his  leg  than  remove  that  boot." 
We  let  go  just  as  the  doctor  passed.  "  What  are  you 
doing  there?"  he  asked  us.  "We  want  to  get  some 
boots."  "  Then  you  will  have  to  cut  them  open ; 
don't  waste  your  time,  the  rigid  leg  will  not  release  the 
boot."  He  passed  on.  The  situation  was  not  com- 
plete without  a  brutal  joke.  An  infantryman  standing 
near  said,  pointing  to  the  dead,  "  Now  you  know  it ; 
let  them  keep  their  old  boots,  they  don't  want  to  walk  on 
their  bare  feet."  The  joke  was  laughed  at.  And  why 
not?  Here  we  were  out  of  danger.  What  were  the 
others  to  us?  We  were  still  alive  and  those  lying  there 
could  hear  no  longer.  We  saw  no  other  things  in  war, 
and  better  things  we  had  not  been  taught. 

It  is  true  that  on  the  way  we  had  got  some  bread 
by  begging  for  it,  but  we  were  still  quite  hungry.  Noth- 
ing was  to  be  seen  of  our  field  kitchen.  The  crew  of  our 
field  kitchen  and  the  foraging  officer  and  sergeant  al- 
ways preferred  to  defend  their  Fatherland  several  tens 


110        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

of  miles  behind  the  front.  What  were  others  to  them? 
What  were  we  to  them?  As  long  as  they  did  not  need 
to  go  within  firing  range  of  the  artillery  they  were 
content.  Comradeship  ceases  where  the  field  kitchen 
begins. 

There  were,  however,  some  field  kitchens  belonging  to 
other  parts  of  the  army.  They  had  prepared  meals, 
but  could  not  get  rid  of  the  food;  even  if  their  com- 
pany, i.e.,  the  rest  of  their  company,  should  have  ar- 
rived they  would  have  had  far  too  much  food.  Many 
a  one  for  whom  they  had  prepared  a  meal  was  no 
longer  in  need  of  one.  Thus  we  were  most  willingly 
given  as  much  to  eat  as  we  wanted.  We  had  scarcely 
finished  eating  when  we  had  to  form  up  again.  Gradu- 
ally several  men  of  our  company  had  come  together. 
We  lined  up  in  a  manner  one  is  used  to  in  war.  The 
"  old  man  "  arrived.  One  of  the  officers  reported  the 
company  to  him,  but  evidently  did  not  report  the  num- 
ber of  the  missing.  Perhaps  the  old  man  did  not  care, 
for  he  did  not  even  ask  whether  we  knew  anything  about 
the  one  or  the  other.  He  stepped  in  front  of  the  com- 
pany and  said  (a  sign  of  his  good  temper),  "Good 
morning,  men!"  (It  was  seven  o'clock  in  the  eve- 
ning!) As  an  answer  he  got  a  grunting  noise  such 
as  is  sometimes  made  by  a  certain  animal,  and  a  sneer- 
ing grin.  Without  much  ado  we  were  ordered  to  go 
to  the  tool  wagons  which  were  standing  near  the  north- 
ern exit  of  the  town,  and  provide  ourselves  with  rifle 
ammunition  and  three  hand  grenades  each.  "  At  half 
past  nine  to-night  you  have  to  line  up  here:  each  man 
must  have  500  cartridges,  three  hand  grenades,  and 
fuses  for  igniting  them ;  step  aside !  " 

On  our  way  to  the  implement  wagons  we  noticed  that 
everywhere  soldiers  that  had  lost  their  companies  were 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  THE  MARNE  111 

being  drawn  together  and  that  new  formations  were 
being  gotten  together  with  the  greatest  speed.  We 
felt  that  something  was  in  the  air,  but  could  not  tell 
what  it  might  be.  The  rain  had  started  again  and 
was  coming  down  in  torrents.  When  we  were  at  the 
appointed  place  at  half  past  nine  in  the  evening  we 
saw  all  the  principal  streets  filled  with  troops,  all  of 
them  in  storming  outfit  like  ourselves.  A  storming 
outfit  consists  of  a  suit  made  of  cloth,  a  cap,  light 
marching  baggage,  tent  canvas,  cooking  utensils,  tent- 
pegs,  the  iron  ration,  and,  in  the  case  of  sappers,  trench 
tools  also.  During  the  day  we  got  our  "  Klamotten," 
i.e.,  our  equipment  together  again.  We  were  standing 
in  the  rain  and  waited.  We  did  not  yet  know  what 
was  going  to  happen.  Then  we  were  ordered  to  take 
off  the  lock  of  our  rifles  and  put  them  in  our  bread 
bags.  The  rifles  could  not  now  be  used  for  shooting. 
We  began  to  feel  what  was  coming,  viz.,  a  night  at- 
tack with  bayonets  and  hand  grenades.  So  as  not  to 
shoot  each  other  in  the  dark  we  had  to  remove  the  lock 
from  the  rifle.  We  stood  there  till  about  11  o'clock 
when  we  were  suddenly  ordered  to  camp.  We  did  not 
know  what  the  whole  thing  meant,  and  were  especially 
puzzled  by  the  last  order  which  was,  however,  welcomed 
by  all  of  us.  We  judged  from  the  rolling  thunder  that 
the  battle  had  not  yet  decreased  in  violence,  and  the 
sky  was  everywhere  red  from  the  burning  villages  and 
farm  houses. 

Returning  "  home  "  we  gathered  from  the  conversa- 
tion the  officers  had  among  themselves  that  a  last  at- 
tempt was  to  be  made  to  repel  the  French ;  that  ex- 
plained the  night  assault  the  order  for  which  had  now 
been  canceled.  They  had  evidently  made,  or  been 
obliged  to  make  another  resolution  at  the  general  staff; 


112        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

perhaps  they  had  recognized  that  no  more  could  be 
done  and  had  rescinded  the  order  for  the  attack  and 
decided  upon  a  retreat,  which  began  the  next  morning 
at  6  o'clock.  We,  however,  had  no  idea  that  it  should 
be  our  last  night  at  Vitry. 

We  lodged  in  a  shanty  for  the  night.     Being  suffi- 
ciently tired  we  were  soon  in  a  deep  slumber.     We  had 
to  rise  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.     Each  of  us  re- 
ceived a  loaf  of  bread;  we  filled  our  water  bottles,  and 
marched  off.     Whither  we  were  marching  we  were  not 
told,  but  we  guessed  it.     The  remaining  population  of 
Vitry,  too,  seemed  to  be  informed ;  some  were  lining  the 
streets,  and  their  glances  were  eloquent.     Everywhere 
a  feverish  activity  was  to  be  observed.     We  halted  out- 
side the  town.     The  captain  called  us  to  gather  round 
him  and  addressed  us  as  follows:     "Our  troops  will 
evacuate  their  positions  on  account  of  the  difficult  ter- 
rain, and  retire  to  those  heights  where  they  will  take 
up  new  positions."     In  saying  that  he  turned  round  and 
pointed  to  a  ridge  near  the  horizon.     He  continued: 
"There  we  shall  settle  down  and  expect  the  enemy. 
New  reinforcements  will  arrive  there  to-day,  and  some 
days  hence  you  will  be  able  to  send  a  picture  postcard 
home  from  Paris."     I  must  avow  that  the  majority  of 
us  believed  that  humbug  at  the  time.     Other  portions 
of  the  army  were  already  arriving  from  all  directions. 
We  had  been  marching  for  some  hours  when  we  heard 
that  Vitry  had  already  been  occupied  again  by  the 
French  and  that  all  the  material  stored  at  Vitry,  to- 
gether with  all  the  hospitals,  doctors   and  men,   and 
whole  companies  of  the  medical  service  had  been  taken 

Towards  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  reached  the 
heights  the  captain  had  shown  us,  but  he  had  evidently 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  THE  MARNE  113 

forgotten  everything,  for  we  marched  on  and  on.  Even 
the  most  stupid  amongst  us  now  began  to  fear  that  we 
had  been  humbugged.  The  streets  became  ever  more 
densely  crowded  with  retreating  troops  and  trains ; 
from  all  sides  they  came  and  wanted  to  use  the  main  road 
that  was  also  being  used  by  us,  and  the  consequence  was 
that  the  road  became  too  congested  and  that  we  were 
continually  pushed  more  to  the  rear.  Munition  wagons 
raced  past  us,  singly,  without  any  organization.  Or- 
der was  no  longer  observed.  Canteen  and  baggage 
wagons  went  past,  and  here  already  a  wild  confusion 
arose.  Every  moment  there  was  a  stop  and  all  got 
wedged.  Many  would  not  wait,  and  some  wagons 
were  driven  by  the  side  of  the  road,  through  fields  turned 
sodden  by  the  rain,  in  an  attempt  to  get  along.  One 
wagon  would  be  overturned,  another  one  would  stick  in 
the  mud.  No  great  trouble  was  taken  to  recover  the 
vehicles,  the  horses  were  taken  out  and  the  wagon  was 
left.  The  drivers  took  the  horses  and  tried  to  get 
along;  every  one  was  intent  upon  finding  safety.  Thus 
one  incident  followed  upon  another. 

An  officer  came  riding  up  and  delivered  an  order  to 
our  captain.  We  did  not  know  what  it  was.  But  we 
halted  and  stepped  into  the  field.  Having  stacked  our 
rifles  we  were  allowed  to  lie  down.  We  lay  down  by  the 
side  of  the  road  and  gazed  at  the  columns,  field  kitchens, 
transports,  medical  trains,  field  post  wagons,  all  filing 
past  us  in  picturesque  confusion.  Wounded  men  were 
lying  or  sitting  on  all  the  vehicles.  Their  faces  showed 
that  riding  on  those  heavy  wagons  caused  them  pain. 
But  they,  too,  wanted  to  get  along  at  any  price  for  they 
knew  from  personal  experience  what  it  meant  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  an  uncompromising  enemy.  They 
would  perhaps  be  considered  as  little  as  they  and  we 


114        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

ourselves  had  formerly  considered  the  wounded  French- 
men left  in  our  hands.  Because  they  knew  this,  as 
all  of  us  did,  they  did  not  want  to  be  left  behind  for 
anything  in  the  world. 

We  had  as  yet  not  the  slightest  idea  what  we  were  to 
do.  Night  came  upon  us,  and  it  poured  again  in  tor- 
rents. We  lay  on  the  ground  and  felt  very  cold.  Our 
tired  bodies  no  longer  gave  out  any  heat.  Yet  we  stayed 
on  the  ground  too  tired  to  move.  Sections  of  artillery 
now  began  to  arrive,  but  most  of  the  batteries  had  no 
longer  their  full  number  (6)  of  guns.  One  had  lost 
three,  another  two ;  many  guns  even  arriving  singly. 
Quite  a  number  of  limbers,  some  50  or  so,  passed  with- 
out guns.  Those  batteries  had  only  been  able  to  save 
the  horses  and  had  been  obliged  to  leave  the  guns  in  the 
hands  of  the  French.  Others  had  only  two  or  four 
horses  instead  of  six. 

Presently  some  fifteen  motorcars,  fine  solid  cars,  came 
along.  We  gazed  in  astonishment  at  the  strong,  ele- 
gant vehicles.  "  Ah !  "  my  neighbors  exclaimed,  "  the 
General  Staff !  "  Duke  Albrecht  of  Wurttemberg  and 
his  faithful  retainers !  We  were  getting  rebellious 
again.  Every  one  felt  wild,  and  it  rained  curses.  One 
man  said,  "  After  having  sent  thousands  to  their  doom 
they  are  now  making  off  in  motorcars."  We  were  lying 
in  the  swamp,  and  nobody  noticed  us.  The  automobiles 
raced  past  and  soon  left  all  behind  them.  We  were 
still  quite  in  the  dark  as  to  our  purpose  in  that  place. 
We  lay  there  for  hours,  till  ten  o'clock  at  night.  The 
troops  were  surging  back  largely  in  dissolved  forma- 
tions. Machine-gun  sections  arrived  with  empty 
wagons;  they  had  lost  all  their  guns.  In  the  west  we 
heard  the  thunder  of  guns  coming  nearer  and  nearer. 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  THE  MARNE  115 

We  did  not  know  whether  we  were  going  to  be  sent  into 
battle  again  or  not. 

The  confusion  in  the  road  became  worse  and  worse 
and  degenerated  in  the  darkness  into  a  panic.  Refu- 
gees, who  were  wandering  about  with  women  and  chil- 
dren in  that  dark  night  and  in  the  pouring  rain,  got 
under  the  wheels  of  wagons ;  wounded  men  in  flight  were 
likewise  crushed  by  the  wheels ;  and  cries  for  help  came 
from  everywhere  out  of  the  darkness.  The  streets  were 
badly  worn.  Abandoned  vehicles  were  lining  the  sides 
of  the  road.  We  began  to  move  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  before  we  were  fully  aware  of  what  was 
happening  we  found  ourselves  with  the  rear-guard. 
Regiments  of  infantry,  shot  to  pieces,  arrived  in  a  piti- 
ful condition.  They  had  cast  away  their  knapsacks 
and  all  unnecessary  impediments,  and  were  trying  to  get 
along  as  fast  as  possible.  Soon  after,  the  first  shrap- 
nel of  the  enemy  began  to  burst  above  our  heads,  which 
caused  us  to  accelerate  our  march  continually.  The 
road,  which  had  also  been  used  during  the  advance,  was 
still  marked  by  deep  shell  holes  that  were  filled  with 
water  to  the  very  edge,  for  it  rained  without  interrup- 
tion. It  was  pitch-dark,  and  every  now  and  then  some- 
body would  fall  into  one  of  those  shell  holes.  We  were 
all  wet  through,  but  continued  to  press  on.  Some  would 
stumble  over  something  in  the  dark,  but  nobody  paid 
any  attention.  The  great  thing  was  to  get  along. 
Dead  horses  and  men  lay  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  but 
nobody  took  the  trouble  to  remove  the  "  obstacle." 

It  was  almost  light  when  we  reached  a  small  village 
and  halted.  The  whole  place  was  at  once  occupied  and 
put  in  a  state  of  defense  as  well  as  was  possible.  We 
took    up   positions   behind    the   walls    of   the    cemetery. 


116        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

Other  troops  arrived  incessantly,  but  all  in  disorder,  in 
a  wild  confused  jumble.  Cavalry  and  artillery  also  ar- 
rived together  with  a  machine-gun  section.  These,  how- 
ever, had  kept  their  formations  intact;  there  was  some 
disorder,  but  no  sign  of  panic.  One  could  see  that  they 
had  suffered  considerable  losses  though  their  casualties 
had  not  been  as  heavy  as  ours.  The  enemy  was  bom- 
barding us  with  his  guns  in  an  increasing  degree,  but 
his  fire  had  no  effect.  Some  houses  had  been  hit  and 
set  alight  by  shells.  Far  away  from  us  hostile  cavalry 
patrols  showed  themselves,  but  disappeared  again. 
Everything  was  quiet.  Ten  minutes  afterwards  things 
in  front  of  us  began  to  get  lively ;  we  saw  whole  columns 
of  the  enemy  approach.  Without  firing  a  shot  we 
turned  and  retired  farther  back.  Mounted  artillery 
were  stationed  behind  the  village  and  were  firing  already 
into  the  advancing  enemy.  A  cavalry  patrol  came  gal- 
loping across  the  open  field,  their  horses  being  covered 
with  foam.  We  heard  the  leader  of  the  patrol,  an  of- 
ficer, call  out  in  passing  to  a  cavalry  officer  that  strong 
forces  of  the  enemy  were  coming  on  by  all  the  roads. 
We  left  the  village  behind  us  and  sought  to  get  along  as 
quickly  as  possible.  We  had  no  idea  where  we  were. 
The  cavalry  and  artillery  sections  that  had  been  left 
behind  were  keeping  the  enemy  under  fire.  Towards 
noon  shrapnel  was  again  exploding  above  our  heads, 
but  the  projectiles  were  bursting  too  high  up  in  the  air 
to  do  any  damage  to  us.  Yet  it  was  a  serious  warning 
to  us,  for  it  gave  us  to  understand  that  the  enemy  was 
keeping  close  on  our  heels  —  a  sufficient  reason  to  con- 
vert our  retreat  into  a  flight.  We  therefore  tried  to 
get  away  as  fast  as  our  tired  out  bones  would  let  us. 
We  knew  there  was  no  chance  of  a  rest  to-day.  So  we 
hurried  on  in  the  drenching  rain. 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  THE  MARNE  117 

The  number  of  those  who  dropped  by  the  way  from 
exhaustion  became  larger  and  larger.  They  belonged 
to  various  portions  of  the  army.  We  could  not  help 
them,  and  there  were  no  more  wagons ;  these  were  more 
in  front.  Those  unfortunate  men,  some  of  whom  were 
unconscious,  were  left  behind  just  as  the  exhausted 
horses.  Those  that  had  sufficient  strength  left  crawled 
to  the  side  of  the  road;  but  the  unconscious  ones  re- 
mained where  they  fell,  exposed  to  the  hoofs  of  the 
horses  and  the  wheels  of  the  following  last  detachments. 
If  they  were  lucky  enough  not  to  be  crushed  to  atoms 
they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Perhaps  those 
who  found  our  men  were  men  and  acted  accordingly,  but 
if  they  were  soldiers  brutalized  by  war,  patriots  filled 
with  hatred,  as  could  also  be  found  in  our  own  ranks, 
then  the  "  boche  "  (as  the  French  say)  had  to  die  a 
miserable  death  by  the  road,  die  for  his  "  Fatherland." 
To  our  shame,  be  it  said,  we  knew  it  from  our  own  ex- 
perience, and  summoned  all  our  energy  so  as  not  to  be 
left  behind.  I  was  thinking  of  the  soldier  of  the  For- 
eign Legion  lying  in  the  desert  sand,  left  behind  by  his 
troop  and  awaiting  the  hungry  hyenas. 

The  road  was  covered  with  the  equipment  the  soldiers 
had  thrown  away.  We,  too,  had  long  ago  cast  aside 
all  unnecessary  ballast.  Thus  we  were  marching,  when 
we  passed  a  wood  densely  packed  with  refugees.  Those 
hunted  people  had  stretched  blankets  between  the  trees 
so  as  to  protect  themselves  from  the  rain.  There  they 
were  lying  in  the  greatest  conceivable  misery,  all  in 
a  jumble,  women  and  men,  children  and  graybeards. 
Their  camp  reached  as  far  as  the  road,  and  one  could 
observe  that  the  terrible  hours  they  had  lived  through 
had  left  deep  furrows  in  their  faces.  They  looked  at 
us  with  weary,  tired  eyes.      The  children  begged  us  to 


118        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

give  them  some  bread,  but  we  had  nothing  whatsoever 
left  and  were  ourselves  tormented  by  hunger.  The  ene- 
my's shrapnel  was  still  accompanying  us,  and  we  had 
scarcely  left  the  wood  when  shrapnel  began  to  explode 
there,  which  caused  the  refugees,  now  exposed  to  the 
fire,  to  crowd  into  the  fields  in  an  attempt  to  reach 
safety.  Many  of  them  joined  us,  but  before  long  they 
were  forbidden  to  use  the  road  because  they  impeded 
the  retreat  of  the  troops.  Thus  all  of  them  were  driven 
without  pity  into  the  fields  soaked  by  the  rain. 

When  we  came  to  a  pillaged  village  towards  the  eve- 
ning we  were  at  last  granted  a  short  rest,  for  in  conse- 
quence of  our  quick  marching  we  had  disengaged  our- 
selves almost  completely  from  the  enemy.  We  heard 
the  noise  of  the  rear-guard  actions  at  a  considerable 
distance  behind  us,  and  we  wished  that  they  would  last 
a  long  time,  for  then  we  could  rest  for  a  longer  period. 
From  that  village  the  head  man  and  two  citizens  were 
carried  off  by  the  Germans,  the  three  being  escorted 
by  cavalry.  We  were  not  told  why  those  people  were 
being  taken  along,  but  each  place  had  to  furnish  such 
"  hostages,"  whole  troops  of  whom  were  being  marched 
off.  The  remaining  cattle  had  also  been  taken  along; 
troopers  were  driving  along  the  cattle  in  large  droves. 
We  were  part  of  the  rear-guard.  It  is  therefore  easy 
to  understand  why  we  found  no  more  eatables.  Hunger 
began  to  plague  us  more  and  more.  Not  a  mouthful 
was  to  be  had  in  the  village  we  had  reached,  and  with- 
out having  had  any  food  we  moved  on  again  after  half 
an  hour's  rest. 

We  had  marched  two  miles  or  so  when  we  came  upon 
a  former  camping  place.  Advancing  German  troops 
had  camped  there  about  a  week  ago.  The  bread  that 
had  evidently  been  plentiful  at  that  time  now  lay  scat- 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  THE  MARXE  119 

tered  in  the  field.  Though  the  bread  had  been  lying 
in  the  open  for  about  a  week  and  had  been  exposed  to  a 
rain  lasting  for  days,  we  picked  it  up  and  swallowed  it 
ravenously.  As  long  as  those  pangs  of  hunger  could 
be  silenced,  it  mattered  little  what  it  was  that  one 
crammed  into  one's  stomach. 


XV 

AT    THE    END    OF    THE    FLIGHT 

Night  fell  again,  and  there  was  still  no  prospect  of 
sleep  and  recuperation.  We  had  no  idea  of  how  far 
we  had  to  retire.  Altogether  we  knew  very  little  of 
how  things  were  going.  We  saw  by  the  strange  sur- 
roundings that  we  were  not  using  the  same  road  on 
which  we  had  marched  before  to  the  Marne  as  "  victors." 
"  Before !  "  It  seemed  to  us  as  if  there  was  an  eternity 
between  that  "  before  "  and  the  present  time,  for  many 
a  one  who  was  with  us  then  was  now  no  longer  among  us. 

One  kept  thinking  and  thinking,  one  hour  chased  the 
other.  Involuntarily  one  was  drawn  along.  We  slept 
whilst  walking.  Our  boots  were  literally  filled  with 
water.  Complaining  was  of  no  use.  We  had  to  keep 
on  marching.  Another  night  passed.  Next  morning 
troops  belonging  to  the  main  army  were  distributed 
among  the  rear-guard.  In  long  columns  they  were  ly- 
ing by  the  side  of  the  road  to  let  us  pass  in  order  to 
join  up  behind.  We  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief,  for  now 
we  were  no  longer  exposed  to  the  enemy's  artillery  fire. 
After  a  march  of  some  five  hours  we  halted  and  were 
lucky  enough  to  find  ourselves  close  to  a  company  of 
infantry  that  had  happily  saved  its  field  kitchen. 

After  the  infantrymen  had  eaten  we  were  given  the 
rest,  about  a  pint  of  bean  soup  each.  Some  sappers 
of  our  company  were  still  among  that  section  of  the 

120 


AT  THE  END  OF  THE  FLIGHT        121 

infantry.  They  had  not  been  able  to  find  us  and  had 
joined  the  infantry.  We  thought  they  were  dead  or 
had  been  taken  prisoners,  but  they  had  only  been  scat- 
tered and  had  lost  their  way.  We  had  hopes  to  recover 
still  many  a  one  of  our  missing  comrades  in  a  similar 
manner,  but  we  found  only  a  few  more  afterwards.  In 
the  evening  of  the  same  day  we  saw  another  fellow  of 
our  company  sitting  on  the  limber  of  the  artillery. 
When  he  saw  us  he  joined  us  immediately  and  told  us 
what  had  happened  to  him.  The  section  he  belonged 
to  had  its  retreat  across  the  Marne  cut  off;  nearly  all 
had  been  made  prisoners  already  and  the  French  were 
about  to  disarm  them  when  he  fled  and  was  lucky  enough 
to  reach  the  other  side  of  the  Marne  by  swimming 
across  the  river.  He,  too,  could  not  or  did  not  want 
to  find  our  company,  and  joined  the  artillery  so  as  not 
to  be  forced  to  walk,  so  he  explained.  Our  opinion  was 
that  he  would  have  done  better  by  remaining  a  prisoner, 
for  in  that  case  the  murdering  business  would  have 
ended  as  far  as  he  was  concerned.  We  told  him  so,  and 
he  agreed  with  us.  "  However,"  he  observed,  "  is  it 
sure  that  the  French  would  have  spared  us?  I  know 
how  we  ourselves  acted ;  and  if  they  had  cut  us  down 
remorselessly  we  should  now  be  dead.  Who  could  have 
known  it?  "  I  knew  him  too  well  not  to  be  aware  that 
he  for  one  had  every  reason  to  expect  from  the  enemy 
what  he  had  often  done  in  his  moments  of  bloodthirst; 
when  he  was  the  "  victor  "  he  knew  neither  humanity 
nor  pity. 

It  was  not  yet  quite  dark  when  we  reached  a  large 
village.  We  were  to  find  quarters  there  and  rest  as 
long  as  was  possible.  But  we  knew  well  enough  that  we 
should  be  able  to  rest  only  for  as  long  as  the  rear- 
guard could  keep  the  enemy  back.     Our  quarters  were 


122        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

in  the  public  school,  and  on  account  of  the  lack  of  food 
we  were  allowed  to  consume  our  iron  rations.  Of  course, 
we  had  long  ago  lost  or  eaten  that  can  of  meat  and  the 
little  bag  of  biscuits.  We  therefore  lay  down  with 
rumbling  stomachs. 

Already  at  11  o'clock  in  the  night  alarm  was 
sounded.  In  the  greatest  hurry  we  had  to  get  ready 
to  march  off,  and  started  at  once.  The  night  was 
pitch-dark,  and  it  was  still  raining  steadily.  The  of- 
ficers kept  on  urging  us  to  hurry  up,  and  the  firing  of 
rifles  told  us  that  the  enemy  was  again  close  at  our 
heels.  At  day-break  we  passed  the  town  of  St.  Mene- 
hould  which  was  completely  intact.  Here  we  turned  to 
the  east,  still  stubbornly  pursued  by  the  French,  and 
reached  Clermont-en-Argonne  at  noon.  Again  we  got 
some  hours  of  rest,  but  in  the  evening  we  had  to  move 
on  again  all  night  long  in  a  veritable  forced  march. 
We  felt  more  tired  from  hour  to  hour,  but  there  was 
no  stopping. 

The  rain  had  stopped  when  we  left  the  road  at  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning  and  we  were  ordered  to  occupy 
positions.  We  breathed  again  freely,  for  that  exhaust- 
ing retreat  lasting  for  days  had  reduced  us  to  a  con- 
dition that  was  no  longer  bearable.  So  we  began  to 
dig  ourselves  in.  We  had  not  half  finished  digging  our 
trenches  when  a  hail  of  artillery  projectiles  was  poured 
on  us.  Fortunately  we  lost  but  few  men,  but  it  was 
impossible  to  remain  any  longer,  and  we  were  immedi- 
ately ordered  to  retreat.  We  marched  on  over  country 
roads,  and  it  was  dark  when  we  began  to  dig  in  again. 
We  were  in  \he  neighborhood  of  Challcrange  quite  near 
the  village  of  Cerney-en-Dormois.  It  was  very  dark 
and  a  thick  mist  surrounded  us.  We  soldiers  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  whereabouts  of  the  enemy.     As  quickly 


AT  THE  END  OF  THE  FLIGHT  123 

as  possible  we  tried  to  deepen  our  trench,  avoiding 
every  unnecessary  noise.  Now  and  then  we  heard  se- 
cret patrols  of  the  enemy  approach,  only  to  disappear 
again  immediately. 

It  was  there  we  got  our  first  reinforcements.  They 
came  up  in  the  dark  in  long  rows,  all  of  them  fresh 
troops  and  mostly  men  of  the  landwehr,  large  numbers 
of  whom  were  still  in  blue  uniforms.  By  their  uniforms 
and  equipment  one  could  see  that  the  men  had  been 
equipped  and  sent  off  in  great  haste.  They  had  not 
yet  heard  the  whistle  of  a  bullet,  and  were  anxiously 
inquiring  whether  the  place  was  dangerous.  They 
brought  up  numerous  machine-guns  and  in  a  jiffy  we 
had  prepared  everything  for  the  defense. 

We  could  not  get  to  know  where  the  French  were 
supposed  to  be.  The  officers  only  told  us  to  keep  in 
our  places.  Our  trench  was  thickly  crowded  with  men, 
and  provided  with  numerous  machine-guns.  We  in- 
structed the  new  arrivals  in  the  way  they  would  have 
to  behave  if  an  attack  should  be  made,  and  told  them 
to  keep  quite  still  and  cool  during  the  attack  and  aim 
accurately. 

They  were  mostly  married  men  that  had  been  dragged 
from  their  occupations  and  had  been  landed  right  in 
our  midst  without  understanding  clearly  what  was  hap- 
pening to  them.  They  had  no  idea  where,  in  what  part 
of  the  country  they  were,  and  they  overwhelmed  us 
with  all  sorts  of  questions.  They  were  not  acquainted 
with  the  handling  of  the  new  98-rifle.  They  were  pro- 
vided with  a  remodeled  rifle  of  the  88  pattern  for  which 
our  ammunition  could  be  used.  Though  no  shots  were 
fired  the  "  new  ones  "  anxiously  avoided  putting  their 
heads  above  the  edge  of  the  trench.  They  provided  us 
liberally  with  eatables  and  cigars. 


124        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

It  was  getting  light,  and  as  yet  we  had  not  seen  much 
of  the  enemy.  Slowly  the  mist  began  to  disappear,  and 
now  we  observed  the  French  occupying  positions  some 
hundred  yards  in  front  of  us.  They  had  made  them- 
selves new  positions  during  the  night  exactly  as  we  had 
done.  Immediately  firing  became  lively  on  both  sides. 
Our  opponent  left  his  trench  and  attempted  an  attack, 
but  our  great  mass  of  machine-guns  literally  mowed 
down  his  ranks.  An  infernal  firing  had  set  in,  and  the 
attack  was  beaten  off  after  only  a  few  steps  had  been 
made  by  the  opposing  troops.  The  French  renewed 
their  attack  again  and  again,  and  when  at  noon  we 
had  beaten  back  eight  assaults  of  that  kind  hundreds 
upon  hundreds  of  dead  Frenchmen  were  covering  the 
ground  between  our  trenches  and  theirs.  The  enemy 
had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  impossible  to 
break  down  our  iron  wall  and  stopped  his  attacks. 

At  that  time  we  had  no  idea  that  this  was  to  be  the 
beginning  of  a  murderous  exhausting  war  of  position, 
the  beginning  of  a  slow,  systematic,  and  useless  slaugh- 
ter. For  months  and  months  we  were  to  fight  on  in 
the  same  trench,  without  gaining  or  losing  ground,  sent 
forward  again  and  again  to  murder  like  raving  beasts 
and  driven  back  again.  Perhaps  it  was  well  that  we 
did  not  know  at  that  time  that  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men  were  to  lose  their  lives  in  that  senseless  slaughter. 

The  wounded  men  between  the  trenches  had  to  perish 
miserably.  Nobody  dared  help  them  as  the  opposing 
side  kept  up  their  fire.  They  perished  slowly,  quite 
slowly.  Their  cries  died  away  after  long  hours,  one 
after  the  other.  One  man  after  the  other  had  lain  down 
to  sleep,  never  to  awake  again.  Some  we  could  hear  for 
days;  night  and  day  they  begged  and  implored  one  to 
assist  them,  but  nobody  could  help.     Their  cries  be- 


AT  THE  END  OF  THE  FLIGHT  125 

came  softer  and  softer  until  at  last  they  died  away  — 
all  suffering  had  ceased.  There  was  no  possibility  of 
burying  the  dead.  They  remained  where  they  fell  for 
weeks.  The  bodies  began  to  decompose  and  spread 
pestilential  stenches,  but  nobody  dared  to  come  and 
bury  the  dead.  If  a  Frenchman  showed  himself  to  look 
for  a  friend  or  a  brother  among  the  dead  he  was  fired 
at  from  all  directions.  His  life  was  dearer  to  him  and 
he  never  tried  again.  We  had  exactly  the  same  ex- 
perience. The  French  tried  the  red  cross  flag.  We 
laughed  and  shot  it  to  pieces.  The  impulse  to  shoot 
down  the  "  enemy "  suppressed  every  feeling  of  hu- 
manity, and  the  *'  red  cross  "  had  lost  its  significance 
when  raised  by  a  Frenchman.  Suspicion  was  nourished 
artificially,  so  that  we  thought  the  "  enemy  "  was  only 
abusing  the  flag;  and  that  was  why  we  wanted  to  shoot 
him  and  the  flag  to  bits. 

But  we  ourselves  took  the  French  for  barbarians  be- 
cause they  paid  us  back  in  kind  and  prevented  us  from 
removing  our  own  wounded  men  to  safety.  The  dead 
remained  where  they  were,  and  when  ten  weeks  later  we 
were  sent  to  another  part  of  the  front  they  were  still 
there. 

We  had  been  fortunate  in  beating  back  all  attacks 
and  had  inflicted  enormous  losses  upon  the  enemy  with- 
out having  ourselves  lost  many  dead  or  wounded  men. 
Under  those  circumstances  no  further  attack  was  to  be 
expected  for  the  time  being.  So  we  employed  all  our 
strength  to  fortify  our  position  as  strongly  as  pos- 
sible. Half  of  the  men  remained  in  their  places,  and 
the  other  half  made  the  trenches  wider  and  deeper. 
But  both  sides  maintained  a  continuous  lively  fire.  The 
losses  we  suffered  that  day  were  not  especially  large, 
but  most  of  the  men  who  were  hit  were  struck  in  the 


126       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

head,  for  the  rest  of  the  body  was  protected  by  the 
trench. 

When  darkness  began  to  descend  the  firing  increased 
in  violence.  Though  we  could  not  see  anything  we 
fired  away  blindly  because  we  thought  the  enemy  would 
not  attempt  an  attack  in  that  case.  We  had  no 
target  and  fired  always  in  the  direction  of  the  enemy's 
trench.  Throughout  the  night  ammunition  and  ma- 
terials were  brought  up,  and  new  troops  kept  arriving. 
Sand  bags  were  brought  in  great  quantities,  filled  and 
utilized  as  cover,  as  a  protection  from  the  bullets.  The 
sappers  were  relieved  towards  morning.  We  had  to 
assemble  at  a  farm  behind  the  firing  line.  The  farm- 
house had  been  completely  preserved,  and  all  the  ani- 
mals were  still  there ;  but  that  splendor  was  destined  to 
disappear  soon.  Gradually  several  hundreds  of  sol- 
diers collected  there,  and  then  began  a  wild  chase  after 
ducks,  geese,  pigeons,  etc.  The  feathered  tribe,  num- 
bering more  than  500  head,  had  been  captured  in  a  few 
hours,  and  everywhere  cooking  operations  were  in  full 
swing. 

There  were  more  than  eighty  cows  and  bullocks  in  a 
neighboring  field.  All  of  them  were  shot  by  the  soldiers 
and  worked  into  food  by  the  field  kitchens.  In  that 
place  everything  was  taken.  Stores  of  hay  and  grain 
had  been  dragged  away  in  a  few  hours.  Even  the  straw 
sheds  and  outbuildings  were  broken  up,  the  wood  being 
used  as  fuel.  In  a  few  hours  that  splendid  farm  had 
become  a  wreck,  and  its  proprietor  had  been  reduced 
to  beggary.  I  had  seen  the  owner  that  morning;  but 
he  had  suddenly  disappeared  with  his  wife  and  children, 
and  nobody  knew  whither.  The  farm  was  within  reach 
of  the  artillery  fire,  and  the  farmer  sought  safety  some- 
where else.     Not  a  soul  cared  where  he  had  gone. 


AT  THE  END  OF  THE  FLIGHT  127 

Rifle  bullets,  aimed  too  high,  were  continually  flying 
about  us,  but  nobody  cared  in  the  least  though  several 
soldiers  had  been  hit.  A  man  of  our  company,  named 
Mertens,  was  sitting  on  the  ground  cleaning  his  rifle 
when  he  was  shot  through  the  neck ;  he  died  a  few  min- 
utes after.  We  buried  him  in  the  garden  of  the  farm, 
placed  his  helmet  on  his  grave,  and  forgot  all  about 
him. 

Near  the  farm  a  German  howitzer  battery  was  in 
position.  The  battery  was  heavily  shelled  by  the  en- 
emy. Just  then  a  munition  train  consisting  of  three 
wagons  came  up  to  carry  ammunition  to  the  battery. 
We  had  amongst  us  a  sergeant  called  Luwie,  from 
Frankfort-on-the-Main.  One  of  his  brothers,  also  a 
sergeant,  was  in  the  column  that  was  passing  by.  That 
had  aroused  our  interest,  and  we  watched  the  column 
to  see  whether  it  should  succeed  in  reaching  the  battery 
through  the  fire  the  enemy  was  keeping  up.  Everything 
seemed  to  go  along  all  right  when  suddenly  the  sergeant, 
the  brother  of  the  sapper  sergeant,  was  hit  by  a  shell 
and  torn  to  pieces,  together  with  his  horse.  All  that 
his  own  brother  was  watching.  It  was  hard  to  tell 
what  was  passing  through  his  mind.  He  was  seen  to 
quiver.  That  was  all ;  then  he  stood  motionless.  Pres- 
ently he  went  straight  to  the  place  of  the  catastrophe 
without  heeding  the  shells  that  were  striking  every- 
where, fetched  the  body  of  his  brother  and  laid  it  down. 
Part  of  the  left  foot  of  the  dead  man  was  missing  and 
nearly  the  whole  right  leg;  a  piece  of  shell  as  big  as  a 
fist  stuck  in  his  chest.  He  laid  down  his  brother  and 
hurried  back  to  recover  the  missing  limbs.  He  brought 
back  the  leg,  but  could  not  find  the  foot  that  had  been 
torn  off.  When  we  had  buried  the  mangled  corpse  the 
sergeant  borrowed  a  map  of  the  general  staff  from  an 


128       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

officer  and  marked  the  exact  spot  of  the  grave  so  as  to 
find  it  again  after  the  war. 

The  farmhouse  had  meanwhile  been  turned  into  a 
bandaging  station.  Our  losses  increased  very  greatly 
judging  from  the  wounded  men  who  arrived  in  large 
numbers.  The  farmhouse  offered  a  good  target  to  the 
enemy's  artillery.  Though  it  was  hidden  by  a  hillock 
some  very  high  poplars  towered  above  that  elevation. 
We  felled  those  trees.  Towards  evening  we  had  to  go 
back  to  the  trench,  for  the  French  were  renewing  their 
attacks,  but  without  any  effect.  The  fresh  troops  were 
all  very  excited,  and  it  was  hard  for  them  to  get  accus- 
tomed to  the  continued  rolling  rifle  fire.  Many  of  them 
had  scarcely  taken  up  their  place  when  they  were  killed. 
Their  blue  uniforms  offered  a  good  target  when  they  ap- 
proached our  positions  from  behind. 

At  night  it  was  fairly  quiet,  and  we  conversed  with 
the  new  arrivals.  Some  of  them  had  had  the  chance 
of  remaining  in  garrison  service,  but  had  volunteered 
for  the  front.  Though  they  had  had  only  one  day  in 
the  firing  line  they  declared  quite  frankly  that  they 
repented  of  their  decision.  They  had  had  quite  a  dif- 
ferent idea  of  what  war  was  like,  and  believed  it  an  ad- 
venture, had  believed  in  the  fine  French  wine,  had  dreamt 
of  some  splendid  castle  where  one  was  quartered  for 
weeks ;  they  had  thought  that  one  would  get  as  much 
to  eat  and  drink  as  one  wished.  It  was  war,  and  in 
war  one  simply  took  what  one  wanted. 

Such  nonsense  and  similar  stuff  they  had  heard  of 
veterans  of  the  war  of  1870-71,  and  they  had  believed 
that  they  went  forward  to  a  life  of  adventure  and  ease. 
Bitterly  disappointed  they  were  now  sitting  in  the  rain 
in  a  dirty  trench,  with  a  vast  army  of  corpses  before 
them.     And  every  minute  they  were  in  danger  of  losing 


AT  THE  END  OF  THE  FLIGHT  129 

their  life !  That  was  a  war  quite  different  from  the  one 
they  had  pictured  to  themselves.  They  knew  nothing 
of  our  retreat  and  were  therefore  not  a  little  surprised 
when  we  related  to  them  the  events  of  the  last  few  days. 


XVI 

THE    BEGINNING    OF    TBENCH    WABFABE 

On  the  next  morning,  at  daybreak,  we  quitted  the 
trench  again  in  order  to  rest  for  two  days.  We  went 
across  the  fields  and  took  up  quarters  at  Cerney-en- 
Dormois.  We  lodged  in  one  of  the  abandoned  houses 
in  the  center  of  the  village.  Our  field  kitchen  had  not 
yet  arrived,  so  we  were  obliged  to  find  our  own  food. 
Members  of  the  feathered  tribe  were  no  longer  to  be 
discovered,  but  if  by  any  chance  a  chicken  showed  its 
head  it  was  immediately  chased  by  a  score  of  men.  No 
meat  being  found  we  resolved  to  be  vegetarians  for  the 
time  being,  and  roamed  through  the  gardens  in  search 
of  potatoes  and  vegetables.  On  that  expedition  we 
discovered  an  officer's  horse  tied  to  a  fence.  We  knew 
by  experience  that  the  saddle  bags  of  officers'  horses 
always  concealed  something  that  could  be  eaten.  We 
were  hungry  enough,  and  quickly  resolved  to  lead  the 
horse  away.  We  searched  him  thoroughly  under 
"  cover,"  and  found  in  the  saddle  bags  quite  a  larder  of 
fine  foodstuffs,  butter  and  lard  among  them.  Then 
we  turned  the  horse  loose  and  used  the  captured  treas- 
ure to  prepare  a  meal,  the  like  of  which  we  had  not 
tasted  for  a  long  time. 

It  tasted  fine  in  spite  of  our  guilty  conscience.     One 

man   made  the  fire,   another  peeled  the  potatoes,  etc. 

Pots  and  a  stove  we  found  in  one  of  the  kitchens  of  the 

houses  in  the  neighborhood. 

130 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  TRENCH  WARFARE        131 

Towards   evening  long  trains   with   provisions   and 
endless  rows  of  fresh  troops  arrived.     In  long  columns 
they  marched  to  the  front  and  relieved  the  exhausted 
men.     Soon  the  whole  place  was  crowded  with  soldiers. 
After  a  two  days'  rest  we  had  to  take  up  again  the 
regular  night  duties  of  the  sapper.     Every  night  we 
had  to  visit  the  position  to  construct  wire  entangle- 
ments.    The  noise  caused  by  the  ramming  in  of  the 
posts  mostly  drew  the  attention  of  the  French  upon  us, 
and  thus  we  suffered  losses  almost  every  night.     But  our 
rest  during  the  daytime  was  soon  to  be  put  an  end  to, 
for  the  enemy's  artillery  began  to  shell  the  place  regu- 
larly.    Curiously  enough,  the  shelling  took  place  al- 
ways at  definite  hours.     Thus,  at  the  beginning,  every 
noon  from  12  to  2  o'clock  from  fifty  to  eighty  shells 
used  to  fall  in  the  place.     At  times  the  missiles  were 
shrapnel  from  the  field  artillery.     One  got  accustomed 
to   it,   though   soldiers   of   other   arms   were   killed   or 
wounded  daily.    Once  we  were  lying  at  noon  in  our  lodg- 
ings when  a  shrapnel  shell  exploded  in  our  room,  happily 
without  doing  any  damage.     The  whole  room  was  filled 
with  dust  and  smoke,  but  not  one  troubled  to  leave  his 
place.     That  sort  of  shooting  was  repeated  almost  daily 
with  increasing  violence.     The  remaining  inhabitants  of 
the  village,  mostly  old  people,  were  all  lodged  in  a  barn 
for  fear  of  espionage.     There  they  were  guarded  by 
soldiers.     As  the  village  was  being  bombarded  always 
at  certain  hours  the  officer  in  command  of  the  place 
believed  that  somebody  in  the  village  communicated  with 
the  enemy  with  a  hidden  telephone.     They  even  went  so 
far  as  to  remove  the  hands  of  the  church  clock,  because 
somebody   had   seen   quite  distinctly   "that   the  hands 
of  the   clock    (which   was   not   going)    had  moved   and 
were  pointing  to  6  and  immediately  afterwards  to  5." 


132        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAJR,  EXPERIENCE 

Of  course,  the  spy  that  had  signaled  to  the  enemy  by 
means  of  the  church  clock  could  be  discovered  as  little 
as  the  man  with  the  concealed  telephone.  But  in  order 
to  be  quite  sure  to  catch  the  "  real "  culprit  all  the 
civilians  were  interned  in  the  barn.  Those  civilian  pris- 
oners were  provided  with  food  and  drink  like  the  soldiers, 
but  like  the  soldiers  they  were  also  exposed  to  the  daily 
bombardment,  which  gradually  devastated  the  whole 
village.  Two  women  and  a  child  had  already  been 
killed  in  consequence  and  yet  the  people  were  not  re- 
moved. Almost  daily  a  house  burned  down  at  some  spot 
or  other  in  the  village,  and  the  shells  now  began  falling 
at  8  o'clock  in  the  evening.  The  shells  were  of  a 
large  size.  We  knew  exactly  that  the  first  shell  arrived 
punctually  at  8  o'clock,  and  we  left  the  place  every 
night.  The  whole  village  became  empty,  and  exactly 
at  8  o'clock  the  first  shell  came  buzzing  heavily  over 
to  our  side.  At  short  intervals,  fourteen  or  sixteen  at 
the  most,  but  never  more,  followed  it.  Those  sixteen 
we  nicknamed  the  "  iron  portion."  Our  opinion  was 
that  the  gun  was  sent  forward  by  the  French  when  it  be- 
came dark,  that  it  fired  a  few  shots,  and  was  then  taken 
to  the  rear  again.  When  we  returned  from  our  "  walk," 
as  we  called  that  nightly  excursion,  we  had  to  go  to  our 
positions.  There  we  had  to  perform  all  imaginable 
kinds  of  work.  One  evening  we  had  to  fortify  a  small 
farm  we  had  taken  from  the  French  the  day  before.  We 
were  to  construct  machine-gun  emplacements.  The 
moon  was  shining  fairly  brightly.  In  an  adjoining 
garden  there  were  some  fruit  trees,  an  apple  tree  among 
them,  with  some  apples  still  attached  to  it.  A  French- 
man had  hanged  himself  on  that  tree.  Though  the 
body  must  have  hung  for  some  days  —  for  it  smelled 
considerably  —  some  of  our  sappers  were  eager  to  get 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  TRENCH  WARFARE        133 

the    apples.     The    soldiers    took    the    apples    without 
troubling  m  the  least  about  the  dead  man. 

Near  that  farm  we  used  mine  throwers  for  the  first 
time.     The  instruments  we  used  there  were  of  a  very 
primitive    kind.     They   consisted    of    a   pipe   made   of 
strong  steel  plate  and  resting  on  an  iron  stand.     An 
unexploded  shell  or  shrapnel  was  filled  with  dynamite, 
provided  with  a  fuse  and  cap,  and  placed  in  the  tube 
of  the  mine  thrower.     Behind  it  was  placed  a  driving 
charge  of  black  powder  of  a  size  corresponding  with 
the  distance  of  the  target  and  the  weight  of  the  pro- 
jectile.    The  driving  charge,  too,  was  provided  with 
a  fuse  that  was  of  such  a  length  that  the  explosion  was 
only  produced  after  the  man  lighting  the  fuse  had  had 
time  to  return  to  a  place  of  safety.     The  fuse  of  the 
mine  was  lit  at  the  same  time  as  the  former,  but  was  of 
a  length  commensurate  with  the  time  of  flight  of  the 
mine,  so  as  to  explode  the  latter  when  the  mine  struck 
the  target,  or  after  a  calculated  period  should  the  mark 
be  missed.     The  driving  charge  must  be  of  such  strength 
that   it   throws  the  projectile   no   farther   than   is   in- 
tended.    The  mine  thrower  is  not  fired  horizontally  but 
at  a  steep  angle.     The  tube  from  which  the  mine  is  fired 
is,  for  instance,  placed  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees,  and 
receives  a  charge  of  fifteen  grammes  of  black  powder 
when  the  distance  is  400  yards. 

It  happens  that  the  driving  charge  does  not  explode, 
and  the  projectile  remains  in  the  tube.  The  fuse  of  the 
mine  continues  burning,  and  the  mine  explodes  in  the 
tube  and  demolishes  the  stand  and  everything  in  its 
neighborhood.  When  we  used  those  mine  throwers 
here  for  the  first  time  an  accident  of  the  kind  described 
happened.  Two  volunteers  and  a  sapper  who  were  in 
charge   of  the   mine   thrower  in   question   thought   the 


134       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

explosion  took  too  long  a  time.  They  believed  it  was 
a  miss.  When  they  had  approached  to  the  distance 
of  some  five  paces  the  mine  exploded  and  all  three  of 
them  were  wounded  very  severely.  We  had  too  little 
experience  in  the  management  of  mine  throwers.  They 
had  been  forgotten,  had  long  ago  been  throwm  on  the 
junk  heap,  giving  way  to  more  modern  technical  appli- 
ances of  war.  Thus,  when  they  suddenly  cropped  up 
again  during  the  war  of  position,  we  had  to  learn  their 
management  from  the  beginning.  The  officers,  who  un- 
derstood those  implements  still  less  than  we  ourselves 
did,  could  not  give  us  any  hints,  so  it  was  no  wonder 
that  accidents  like  the  foregoing  happened  frequently. 

Those  mine  throwers  cannot  be  employed  for  long 
distances;  at  600  yards  they  reach  the  utmost  limit  of 
their  effectiveness. 

Besides  handling  the  mine  throwers  we  had  to  fur- 
nish secret  patrols  every  night.  The  chief  purpose  of 
those  excursions  was  the  destruction  of  the  enemy's  de- 
fenses or  to  harry  the  enemy's  sentries  so  as  to  deprive 
them  of  sleep. 

We  carried  hand  grenades  for  attack  and  defense. 
When  starting  on  such  an  excursion  we  were  always 
instructed  to  find  out  especially  the  number  of  the  army 
section  that  an  opponent  we  might  kill  belonged  to. 
The  French  generally  have  their  regimental  number  on 
the  collars  of  their  coat  or  on  their  cap.  So  when- 
ever we  "spiflicated  "  one  and  succeeded  in  getting  near 
him  we  would  cut  that  number  out  of  his  coat  with  a 
knife  or  take  away  his  coat  or  cap.  In  that  way  the 
German  army  command  identified  the  opposing  army 
corps.  They  thus  got  to  know  exactly  the  force  our 
opponent  was  employing  and  whether  his  best  troops 
were  in  front  of  us.     All  of  us  greatly  feared  those 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  TRENCH  WARFARE        135 

night  patrols,  for  the  hundreds  of  men  killed  months 
ago  were  still  lying  between  the  lines.  Those  corpses 
were  decomposed  to  a  pulp.  So  when  a  man  went  on 
nocturnal  patrol  duty  and  when  he  had  to  crawl  in  the 
utter  darkness  on  hands  and  knees  over  all  those  bodies 
he  would  now  and  then  land  in  the  decomposed  faces  of 
the  dead.  If  then  a  man  happened  to  have  a  tiny 
wound  in  his  hands  his  life  was  greatly  endangered  by 
the  septic  virus.  As  a  matter  of  fact  three  sappers  and 
two  infantrymen  of  the  landwehr  regiment  No.  17  died 
in  consequence  of  poisoning  by  septic  virus.  Later  on 
that  kind  of  patroling  was  given  up  or  only  resorted  to 
in  urgent  cases,  and  only  such  men  were  employed  who 
were  free  of  wounds.  That  led  to  nearly  all  of  us  in- 
flicting skin  wounds  to  ourselves  to  escape  patrol  duty. 
Our  camping  place,  Cerney-en-Dormois,  was  still 
being  bombarded  violently  by  the  enemy  every  day. 
The  firing  became  so  heavy  at  last  that  we  could  no 
longer  sleep  during  the  day.  The  large  shells  pene- 
trated the  houses  and  reached  the  cellars.  The  civilian 
prisoners  were  sent  away  after  some  had  been  killed 
bjT  shells.  We  ourselves,  however,  remained  in  the  place 
very  much  against  our  inclination  in  spite  of  the  con- 
tinuous bombardment.  Part  of  our  company  lived  in 
a  large  farmhouse,  where  recently  arrived  reserves 
were  also  lodged.  One  day,  at  noon,  the  village  was 
suddenly  overwhelmed  by  a  hail  of  shells  of  a  large  size. 
Five  of  them  struck  the  farmhouse  mentioned,  almost 
at  the  same  time.  All  the  men  were  resting  in  the  spa- 
cious rooms.  The  whole  building  was  demolished,  and 
our  loss  consisted  of  17  dead  and  28  wounded  men.  The 
field  kitchen  in  the  yard  was  also  completely  destroyed. 
Without  waiting  for  orders  we  all  cleared  out  of  the 
village  and  collected  again  outside.     But  the  captain 


136       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

ordered  us  to  return  to  the  place  because,  so  he  said, 
he  had  not  yet  received  orders  from  the  divisional  com- 
mander to  evacuate  the  village.  Thereupon  we  went 
back  to  our  old  quarters  and  embarked  again  on  a 
miserable  existence.  After  living  in  the  trenches  dur- 
ing the  night,  in  continual  danger  of  life,  we  arrived  in 
the  morning,  after  those  hours  of  trial,  with  shattered 
nerves,  at  our  lodgings.  We  could  not  hope  to  get  any 
rest  and  sleep,  for  the  shells  kept  falling  everywhere  in 
the  village.  In  time,  however,  one  becomes  accustomed 
to  everything.  When  a  shell  came  shrieking  along  we 
knew  exactly  whereabout  it  would  strike.  By  the  sound 
it  made  we  knew  whether  it  was  of  large  or  small  size 
and  whether  the  shell,  having  come  down,  would  burst 
or  not.  Similarly  the  soldiers  formed  a  reliable  judg- 
ment in  regard  to  the  nationality  of  an  aeroplane. 
When  an  aeroplane  was  seen  at  a  great  distance  near 
the  horizon  the  soldiers  could  mostly  say  exactly 
whether  it  was  a  German  or  a  French  flying  machine. 
It  is  hard  to  say  by  what  we  recognized  the  machines. 
One  seems  to  feel  whether  it  is  a  friend  or  a  foe  that  is 
coming.  Of  course,  a  soldier  also  remembers  the  char- 
acteristic noise  of  the  motor  and  the  construction  of 
the  aeroplane. 

When  a  French  flier  passed  over  our  camp  the  streets 
would  quickly  empty  themselves.  The  reason  was  not 
that  we  were  afraid  of  the  flying  man ;  we  disappeared 
because  we  knew  that  a  bombardment  would  follow  after 
he  had  landed  and  reported.  We  left  the  streets  so  as 
to  convey  the  impression  that  the  place  was  denuded 
of  troops.  But  the  trick  was  not  of  much  use.  Every 
day  houses  were  set  alight,  and  the  church,  which  had 
been  furnished  as  a  hospital,  was  also  struck  several 
times. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  TRENCH  WARFARE        137 

Up  to  that  time  it  had  been  comparatively  quiet  at 
the  front.  We  had  protected  our  position  with  wide 
wire  entanglements.  Quite  a  maze  of  trenches,  a  thing 
that  defies  description,  had  been  constructed.  One 
must  have  seen  it  in  order  to  comprehend  what  immense 
masses  of  soil  had  been  dug  up. 

Our  principal  position  consisted  of  from  6  to  8 
trenches,  one  behind  the  other  and  each  provided  with 
strong  parapets  and  barbed  wire  entanglements ;  each 
trench  had  been  separately  fortified.  The  distance  be- 
tween the  various  trenches  was  sometimes  20  yards, 
sometimes  a  hundred  and  more,  all  according  to  the 
requirements  of  the  terrain.  All  those  positions  were 
joined  by  lines  of  approach.  Those  connecting  roads 
are  not  wide,  are  only  used  by  the  relieving  troops  and 
for  transporting  purposes,  and  are  constructed  in  a 
way  that  prevents  the  enemy  from  enfilading  them ; 
they  run  in  a  zigzag  course.  To  the  rear  of  the  com- 
munication trenches  are  the  shelters  of  the  resting 
troops  (reserves).  Two  companies  of  infantry,  for  in- 
stance, will  have  to  defend  in  the  first  trench  a  section 
of  the  front  measuring  some  two  hundred  yards.  One 
company  is  always  on  duty,  whilst  the  other  is  resting 
in  the  rear.  However,  the  company  at  rest  must  ever 
be  ready  for  the  firing  line  and  is  likely  to  be  alarmed 
at  any  minute  for  service  at  a  moment's  notice  should 
the  enemy  attack.  The  company  is  in  telephonic  com- 
munication with  the  one  doing  trench  duty.  Wherever 
the  country  (as  on  swampy  ground)  does  not  permit 
the  construction  of  several  trenches  and  the  housing  of 
the  reserves  the  latter  are  stationed  far  in  the  roar, 
often  in  the  nearest  village.  In  such  places,  relieving 
operations,  though  carried  out  only  at  night  are  very 
difficult  and  almost  always  accompanied  by  casualties. 


138        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

Relief  is  not  brought  up  at  fixed  hours,  for  the  enemy 
must  be  deceived.  But  the  enemy  will  be  informed  of 
local  conditions  by  his  fliers,  patrols  or  the  statements 
of  prisoners,  and  will  keep  the  country  under  a  con- 
tinual heavy  curtain  fire,  so  that  the  relieving  troops 
coming  up  across  the  open  field  almost  always  suffer 
losses.  Food  and  ammunition  are  also  forwarded  at 
night.  The  following  incident  will  illustrate  the  dif- 
ficulty even  one  man  by  himself  experiences  in  approach- 
ing such  positions. 

Myself,  a  sergeant,  and  three  .others  had  been  or- 
dered on  secret  patrol  duty  one  night.  Towards  ten 
o'clock  we  came  upon  the  line  of  the  curtain  fire.  We 
were  lying  flat  on  the  ground,  waiting  for  a  favorable 
opportunity  to  cross.  However,  one  shell  after  the 
other  exploded  in  front  of  us,  and  it  would  have  been 
madness  to  attempt  to  pass  at  that  point.  Next  to 
me  lay  a  sapper  of  my  own  annual  military  class ;  noth- 
ing could  be  seen  of  the  sergeant  and  the  two  other 
privates.  On  a  slight  elevation  in  front  of  us  we  saw 
in  the  moonlight  the  shadowy  forms  of  some  persons  who 
were  lying  flat  on  the  ground  like  ourselves.  We 
thought  it  impossible  to  pass  here.  My  mate,  pointing 
to  the  shapes  before  us  said,  "  There's  Sergeant  Mertens 
and  the  others ;  I  think  I'll  go  up  to  them  and  tell  him 
that  we  had  better  wait  a  while  until  it  gets  more 
quiet."  "  Yes ;  do  so,"  I  replied.  He  crawled  to  the 
place  on  his  hands  and  knees,  and  I  observed  him  ly- 
ing near  the  others.  He  returned  immediately.  The 
shapes  turned  out  to  be  four  dead  Frenchmen  of  the 
colonial  army,  who  had  been  there  for  weeks.  He  had 
only  seen  who  they  were  when  he  received  no  answer  to 
his  report.  The  dead  thus  lay  scattered  over  the  whole 
country.     Nothing  could  be  seen  of  the  sergeant  and 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  TRENCH  WARFARE        139 

the  other  men.  So  we  seized  a  favorable  opportunity 
to  slip  through,  surrounded  by  exploding  shells.  We 
could  find  out  nothing  about  our  companions.  Our 
search  in  the  trench  was  likewise  unsuccessful;  nobody 
could  give  us  the  slightest  information  though  sappers 
were  well  known  among  the  infantry,  because  we  had  to 
work  at  all  the  points  of  the  front.  An  hour  later  the 
relieving  infantry  arrived.  They  had  lost  five  men  in 
breaking  through  the  barrier  fire.  Our  sergeant  was 
among  the  wounded  they  brought  in.  Not  a  trace  was 
ever  found  of  the  two  other  soldiers.  Nobody  knew 
what  had  become  of  them. 

Under  such  and  similar  conditions  we  spent  every 
night  outside.  We  also  suffered  losses  in  our  camp 
almost  every  day.  Though  reserves  from  our  garrison 
town  had  arrived  twice  already  our  company  had  a 
fighting  strength  of  only  75  men.  But  at  last  we 
cleared  out  of  the  village,  and  were  stationed  at  the  vil- 
lage of  Boucoville,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  north- 
east of  Cerney-en-Dormois.  Cerney-en-Dormois  was 
gradually  shelled  to  pieces,  and  when  at  night  we  had 
to  go  to  the  trench  we  described  a  wide  circle  around 
that  formerly  flourishing  village. 

At  Boucoville  we  received  the  first  letters  from  home 
by  the  field  post.  They  had  been  on  their  journey  for 
a  long,  long  time,  and  arrived  irregularly  and  in  sheaves. 
But  many  were  returned,  marked,  "  Addressee  killed," 
"  Addressee  missing,"  "  Wounded."  However,  many 
had  to  be  marked,  "  Addressee  no  longer  with  the  army 
detachment."  They  could  not  quite  make  out  the  dis- 
appearance of  many  "  addressees,"  but  many  of  us  had 
just  suspicions  about  them,  and  we  wished  good  luck  to 
those  "  missing  men  "  in  crossing  some  neutral  frontier. 

The  letters  we  received  were  dated  the  first  days  of 


140       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

August,  had  wandered  everywhere,  bore  the  stamps  of 
various  field  post-offices  and,  in  contrast  with  the  ones 
we  received  later  on,  were  still  full  of  enthusiasm. 
Mothers  were  not  yet  begging  their  sons  not  to  risk 
their  lives  in  order  to  gain  the  iron  cross ;  that  implor- 
ing prayer  should  arrive  later  on  again  and  again.  It 
was  also  at  that  place  that  we  received  the  first  of  those 
small  field  post-parcels  containing  cigars  and  chocolate. 

After  staying  some  ten  weeks  in  that  part  of  the  coun- 
try we  were  directed  to  another  part  of  the  front.  No- 
body knew,  however,  whither  we  were  going  to  be  sent. 
It  was  all  the  same  to  us.  The  chance  of  getting  out 
of  the  firing  line  for  a  few  days  had  such  a  charm  for 
us  that  our  destination  did  not  concern  us  in  the  least. 
It  gave  us  a  wonderful  feeling  of  relief,  when  we  left 
the  firing  zone  on  our  march  to  the  railroad  station 
at  Challerange.  For  the  first  time  in  a  long  period  we 
found  ourselves  in  a  state  of  existence  where  our  lives 
were  not  immediately  endangered;  even  the  most  far- 
reaching  guns  could  no  longer  harm  us.  A  man  must 
have  lived  through  such  moments  in  order  to  appreciate 
justly  the  importance  of  such  a  feeling.  However  much 
one  has  got  accustomed  to  being  in  constant  danger 
of  one's  life,  that  danger  never  ceases  to  oppress  one, 
to  weigh  one  down. 

At  the  station  we  got  into  a  train  made  up  of  second 
and  third-class  coaches.  The  train  moved  slowly 
through  the  beautiful  autumnal  landscape,  and  for  the 
first  time  we  got  an  insight  into  the  life  behind  the  front. 
All  the  depots,  the  railroad  crossings  and  bridges  were 
held  by  the  military.  There  all  the  men  of  the  land- 
sturm  were  apparently  leading  quite  an  easy  life,  and 
had  made  themselves  comfortable  in  the  depots  and 
shanties  of  the  road-men.     They  all  looked  well  nour- 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  TRENCH  WARFARE        141 

ished  and  were  well  clad.  Whenever  the  train  stopped 
those  older  men  treated  us  liberally  to  coffee,  bread,  and 
fruit.  They  could  see  by  our  looks  that  we  had  not 
had  the  same  good  time  that  they  were  having.  They 
asked  us  whence  we  came.  Behind  the  front  things 
were  very  lively  everywhere.  At  all  the  larger  places 
we  could  see  long  railway  trains  laden  with  agricultural 
machinery  of  every  description.  The  crew  of  our  train 
were  men  of  the  Prusso-Hessian  state  railroads.  They 
had  come  through  those  parts  many  times  before,  and 
told  us  that  the  agricultural  machines  were  being  re- 
moved from  the  whole  of  the  occupied  territory  and  sent 
to  East  Prussia  in  order  to  replace  what  the  Russians 
had  destroyed  there.  The  same  was  being  done  with 
all  industrial  machinery  that  could  be  spared.  Again 
and  again  one  could  observe  the  finest  machines  on  their 
way  to  Germany. 

Towards  midnight  we  passed  Sedan.  There  we  were 
fed  by  the  Red  Cross.  The  Red  Cross  had  erected  feed- 
ing stations  for  passing  troops  in  long  wooden  sheds. 
Early  next  morning  we  found  ourselves  at  Montmedy. 
There  we  had  to  leave  the  train,  and  were  allowed  to 
visit  the  town  for  a  few  hours. 


XVII 

FRIENDLY   RELATIONS    WITH    THE    ENEMT 

There  was  no  lack  of  food  at  Montmedy.  The  can- 
teens were  provided  with  everything;  prices  were  high, 
however.  Montmedy  is  a  third-class  French  fortress 
and  is  situated  like  Ehrenbreitstein  on  a  height  which 
is  very  steep  on  one  side;  the  town  is  situated  at  the 
foot  of  the  hill.  The  fortress  was  taken  by  the  Ger- 
mans without  a  struggle.  The  garrison  who  had  pre- 
pared for  defense  before  the  fortress,  had  their  retreat 
cut  off.  A  railroad  tunnel  passes  through  the  hill  un- 
der the  fortress,  but  that  had  been  blown  up  by  the 
French.  The  Germans  laid  the  rails  round  the  hill 
through  the  town  so  as  to  establish  railroad  communi- 
cations with  their  front.  It  looked  almost  comical  to 
watch  the  transport  trains  come  rolling  on  through  the 
main  street  and  across  the  market  place.  Everywhere 
along  the  Meuse  the  destroyed  bridges  had  been  re- 
placed by  wooden  ones.  Montmedy  was  the  chief  base 
of  the  Fifth  Army  (that  of  the  Crown  Prince),  and  con- 
tained immense  stores  of  war  material.  Besides  that  it 
harbored  the  field  post-office,  the  headquarters  for  army 
provisions,  a  railroad  management,  and  a  great  number 
of  hospitals.  The  largest  of  them  used  to  be  called 
the  "  theater  hospital,"  on  account  of  its  being  installed 
in  the  municipal  theater  and  the  adjoining  houses,  and 
always  contained  from  500  to  600  wounded. 

Things  were  very  lively  at  Montmedy.  One  chiefly 
142 


FRIENDLY  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  ENEMY      143 

observed  convalescent  soldiers  walking  through  the 
streets  and  a  remarkable  number  of  officers,  all  of  whom 
had  been  attached  to  the  various  departments.  They 
lowered  about  in  their  faultless  uniforms,  or  rode  along 
whip  m  hand.  Moreover,  they  had  not  yet  the  slightest 
idea  of  what  war  was  like,  and  when  we  met  them  they 
expected  us  to  salute  them  in  the  prescribed  manner. 
Many  of  them  accosted  us  and  asked  us  rudely  why  we 
did  not  salute.  After  a  few  hours  we  got  sick  of  life 
twenty  miles  behind  the  Verdun  front. 

At  Montmedy   we  were   about   twenty   miles   behind 
V  erdun  and  some  sixty  miles  away  from  our  former  po- 
sition.    When  towards  one  o'clock  p.  m.  we  began  to 
move  on  we  guessed  that  we  were  to  be  dragged  to  the 
country  round  Verdun.     After  a  march  of  nine  miles 
we  reached  the  village  of  Fametz.     There  we  were  lod  o-cd 
in  various  barns.     Nearly  all  of  the  inhabitants  had 
stayed  on;  they  seemed  to  be  on  quite  friendly  terms 
with  the  soldiers.     Time  had  brought  them  closer  to 
each  other    and  we,  too,  got  an  entirely  different  idea 
WK°Ur   "^ereditar^   oncmj"   on   closer   acquaintance. 
When  walking  through  the  place  we  were  offered  all 
kinds  of  things  by  the  inhabitants,  were  treated  to  cof- 
fee, meat,  and  milk,  exactly  as  is  done  by  German  pa- 
triots during  maneuvers  and  we  were  even  treated  bet- 
ter than  at  home.     To  reward  them  for  these  marks  of 
attention  we  murdered  the  sons   of  those  people  who 
desired  nothing  better  than  living  in  peace. 

Early  next  morning  we  moved  on,  and  when  we  ar- 
rived at  Damvillers  in  the  evening  we  heard  that  we 
were  some  three  miles  behind  the  firing  line.  That  very 
night  we  marched  to  the  .-mall  village  of  Warville.  That 
was  our  destination,  and  there  we  took  up  our  quarters 
m  a  house  that  had  been  abandoned  by  its  inhabitants. 


144.       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

We  were  attached  to  the  ninth  reserve  division,  and  the 
following  day  already  we  had  to  take  up  our  positions. 
Fifteen  of  us  were  attached  to  a  company  of  infantry. 
No  rifle  firing  was  to  be  heard  along  the  line,  only  the 
artillery  of  the  two  sides  maintained  a  weak  fire.  We 
were  not  accustomed  to  such  quietness  in  the  trenches, 
but  the  men  who  had  been  here  for  a  long  time  told  us 
that  sometimes  not  a  shot  was  fired  for  days  and  that 
there  was  not  the  slightest  activity  on  either  side.  It 
seemed  to  us  that  we  were  going  to  have  a  nice  quiet 
time. 

The  trench  in  that  section  crossed  the  main  road 
leading  from  Damvillers  to  Verdun  (a  distance  of  some 
fifteen  miles).  The  enemy's  position  was  about  300 
yards  in  front  of  us.  German  and  French  troops  were 
always  patroling  the  road  from  six  o'clock  at  night  till 
the  morning.  At  night  time  those  troops  were  always 
standing  together.  Germans  and  Frenchmen  met,  and 
the  German  soldiers  had  a  liking  for  that  duty.  Neither 
side  thought  for  a  moment  to  shoot  at  the  other  one ; 
everybody  had  just  to  be  at  his  post.  In  time  both 
sides  had  cast  away  suspicions ;  every  night  the  "  hered- 
itary enemies  "  shook  hands  with  each  other ;  and  on 
the  following  morning  the  relieved  sentries  related  to  us 
with  pleasure  how  liberally  the  Frenchmen  had  shared 
everything  with  them.  They  always  exchanged  news- 
papers with  them,  and  so  it  came  about  that  we  got 
French  papers  every  day,  the  contents  of  which  were 
translated  to  us  by  a  soldier  who  spoke  the  French 
language. 

By  day  we  were  able  to  leave  the  trench,  and  we 
would  be  relieved  across  the  open  field  without  running 
any  danger.  The  French  had  no  ideas  of  shooting  at 
us;  neither  did  we  think  of  shooting  at  the  French. 


FRIENDLY  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  ENEMY      145 

When  we  were  relieved  we  saluted  our  enemies  by  waving 
our  helmets,  and  immediately  the  others  replied  by  wav- 
ing their  caps.  When  we  wanted  water  we  had  to  go  to 
a  farm  situated  between  the  lines.  The  French  too, 
fetched  their  water  from  there.  It  would  have  been 
easy  for  each  side  to  prevent  the  other  from  using  that 
well,  but  we  used  to  go  up  to  it  quite  unconcerned, 
watched  by  the  French.  The  latter  used  to  wait  till 
we  trotted  off  again  with  our  cooking  pots  filled,  and 
then  they  Mould  come  up  and  provide  themselves  with 
water.  At  night  it  often  happened  that  we  and  the 
Frenchmen  arrived  at  the  well  at  the  same  time.  In 
such  a  case  one  of  the  parties  would  wait  politely  until 
the  other  had  done.  Thus  it  happened  that  three  of 
us  were  at  the  well  without  any  arms  when  a  score  of 
Frenchmen  arrived  with  cooking  pots.  Though  the 
Frenchmen  were  seven  times  as  numerous  as  ourselves 
the  thought  never  struck  them  that  they  might  fall  upon 
us.  The  twenty  men  just  waited  quietly  till  we  had 
done ;  we  then  saluted  them  and  went  off. 

One  night  a  French  sergeant  came  to  our  trench, 
lie  spoke  German  very  well,  said  he  was  a  deserter,  and 
begged  us  to  regard  him  as  our  prisoner.  But  the  in- 
fantrymen became  angry  and  told  him  to  get  back  to 
the  French  as  quickly  as  possible.  Meanwhile  a  second 
Frenchman  had  come  up  and  asked  excitedly  whether  a 
man  of  theirs  had  not  deserted  to  us  a  short  while  ago. 
Then  our  section  leader,  a  young  lieutenant,  arrived 
upon  the  scene,  and  the  Frenchman  who  had  come  last 
begged  him  to  send  the  deserter  back.  "  For,"  so  he 
remarked,  "  if  our  officers  get  to  know  that  one  of  our 
men  has  voluntarily  given  himself  up  we  shall  have  to 
say  good-by  to  the  good  time  we  are  having,  and  the 
shooting  will  begin  again." 


146        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

We,  too,  appreciated  the  argument  that  such  inci- 
dents would  only  make  our  position  worse.  The  lieu- 
tenant vanished;  he  did  not  want  to  have  a  finger  in 
that  pie;  very  likely  he  also  desired  that  things  remain 
as  they  were.  We  quickly  surrendered  the  deserter; 
each  one  of  the  two  Frenchmen  was  presented  with  a 
cigarette,  and  then  they  scurried  away  full  steam  ahead. 

We  felt  quite  happy  under  those  circumstances  and 
did  not  wish  for  anything  better.  On  our  daily  return 
journeys  we  observed  that  an  immense  force  of  artillery 
was  being  gathered  and  were  placed  in  position  further 
back.  New  guns  arrived  every  day,  but  were  not  fired. 
The  same  lively  activity  could  be  observed  in  regard 
to  the  transportation  of  ammunition  and  material. 
At  that  time  we  did  not  yet  suspect  that  these 
were  the  first  preparations  for  a  strong  offensive. 

After  staying  in  that  part  of  the  country  some  four 
weeks  we  were  again  ordered  to  some  other  part  of  the 
front.  As  usual  we  had  no  idea  of  our  new  destination. 
Various  rumors  were  in  circulation.  Some  thought  it 
would  be  Flanders,  others  thought  it  would  be  Russia; 
but  none  guessed  right. 

We  inarched  off  and  reached  Dun-sur-Meuse  in  the 
afternoon.  We  had  scarcely  got  to  the  town  when  the 
German  Crown  Prince,  accompanied  by  some  officers 
and  a  great  number  of  hounds,  rode  past  us.  "  Good 
day,  sappers !  "  he  called  to  us,  looking  at  us  closely. 
He  spoke  to  our  captain,  and  an  officer  of  his  staff  took 
us  to  an  establishment  of  the  Red  Cross  where  we  re- 
ceived good  food  and  wine.  The  headquarters  of  the 
Hohenzollern  scion  was  here  at  Dun-sur-Meuse.  The 
ladies  of  the  Red  Cross  treated  us  very  well.  We  asked 
them  whether  all  the  troops  passing  through  the  place 
were  cared  for  as  well  as  that.     "  0  yes,"  a  young 


FRIENDLY  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  ENEMY      147 

lady  replied ;  "  only  few  pass  through  here,  but  the 
Crown  Prince  has  a  special  liking  for  sappers." 

We  lodged  there  for  the  night,  and  the  soldiers  told 
us  that  Dun-sur-Meuse  was  the  headquarters  of  the 
Fifth  Army,  that  life  was  often  very  jolly  there,  and 
every  day  there  was  an  open  air  concert.  We  heard 
that  the  officers  often  received  ladies  from  Germany, 
but,  of  course,  the  ladies  only  came  to  distribute  gifts 
among  the  soldiers. 

Richly  provided  with  food  we  continued  our  march 
the  next  morning,  and  kept  along  the  side  of  the  Meuse. 
In  the  evening  we  were  lodged  at  Stenay. 


XVIII 

FIGHTING   IN    THE    ARGONNES 

Finally,  after  two  days,  we  landed  at  Apremont-en- 
Argonne.  For  the  time  being  we  were  quartered  in  a 
large  farm  to  the  northeast  of  Apremont.  We  found 
ourselves  quite  close  to  the  Argonnes.  All  the  soldiers 
whom  we  met  and  who  had  been  there  for  some  time  told 
us  of  uninterrupted  daily  fighting  in  those  woods. 

Our  first  task  was  to  construct  underground  shelters 
that  should  serve  as  living  rooms.  We  commenced 
work  at  about  a  mile  and  three  quarters  behind  the 
front,  but  had  to  move  on  after  some  shells  had  de- 
stroyed our  work  again.  We  then  constructed,  about 
a  mile  and  a  quarter  behind  the  front,  a  camp  consist- 
ing of  thirty-five  underground  shelters. 

A  hole  is  dug,  some  five  yards  square  and  two  yards 
deep.  Short  tree  trunks  are  laid  across  it,  and  about 
two  yards  of  earth  piled  upon  them.  We  had  no  straw, 
so  we  had  to  sleep  on  the  bare  ground  for  a  while. 
Rifle  bullets  coming  from  the  direction  of  the  front  kept 
flying  above  our  heads  and  struck  the  trees.  We  were 
attached  to  the  various  companies  of  infantry;  I  my- 
self was  with  the  tenth  company  of  the  infantry  regi- 
ment No.  67. 

The  soil  had  been  completely  ploughed  up  by  con- 
tinued use,  and  the  paths  and  roads  had  been  covered 
with  sticks  and  tree  trunks  so  that  they  could  be  used 
by   men    and   wagons.     After   an   arduous   march   we 

148 


FIGHTING  IN  THE  ARGONNES  149 

reached  the  foremost  position.  It  was  no  easy  task  to 
find  one's  way  in  that  maze  of  trenches.  The  water  was 
more  than  a  foot  deep  in  those  trenches.  At  last  we 
arrived  at  the  most  advanced  position  and  reported  to 
the  captain  of  the  tenth  company  of  the  67th  regiment 
of  infantry.  Of  course,  the  conditions  ohtaining  there 
were  quite  unknown  to  us,  but  the  men  of  the  infantry 
soon  explained  things  to  us  as  far  as  they  could.  After 
two  or  three  days  we  were  already  quite  familiar  with 
our  surroundings,  and  our  many-sided  duty  began. 

The  French  lay  only  some  ten  yards  away  from  us. 
The  second  day  we  were  engaged  in  a  fight  with  hand 
grenades.  In  that  fight  Sapper  Beschtel  from  Saar- 
brucken  was  killed.  He  was  our  first  casualty  in  the 
Argonnes,  but  many  were  to  follow  him  in  the  time  that 
followed.  In  the  rear  trenches  we  had  established  an 
engineering  depot.  There  25  men  made  nothing  but 
hand  grenades.  Thus  we  soon  had  made  ourselves  at 
home,  and  were  ready  for  all  emergencies. 

At  the  camp  we  were  divided  in  various  sections. 
That  division  in  various  sections  gave  us  an  idea  of  the 
endless  ways  and  means  employed  in  our  new  position. 
There  were  mining,  sapping,  hand  grenade  sections, 
sections  for  mine  throwing  and  illuminating  pistols. 
Others  again  constructed  wire  entanglements,  chevaux- 
de-frise,  or  projectiles  for  the  primitive  mine  throwers. 
At  one  time  one  worked  in  one  section  then  again  in 
another.  The  forest  country  was  very  difficult.  The 
thick,  tangled  underwood  formed  by  itself  an  almost 
insuperable  obstacle.  All  the  trees  were  shot  down  up 
to  the  firing  level.  Cut  off  clean  by  the  machine-guns 
they  lay  in  all  directions  on  the  ground,  forming  a 
natural  barricade. 

The  infantrvmen   had   told   us   about    the  difficulties 


150        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

under  which  fighting  was  carried  on  uninterruptedly. 
Not  a  day  passed  without  casualties.  Firing  went  on 
without  a  pause.  The  men  had  never  experienced  an 
interval  in  the  firing.  We  soon  were  to  get  an  idea  of 
that  mass  murder,  that  systematic  slaughter.  The 
largest  part  of  our  company  was  turned  into  a  mine 
laying  section,  and  we  began  to  mine  our  most  advanced 
trench.  For  a  distance  of  some  500  yards,  a  yard 
apart,  we  dug  in  boxes  of  dynamite,  each  weighing  50 
pounds.  Each  of  those  mines  was  provided  with  a  fuse 
and  all  were  connected  so  that  all  the  mines  could  be 
exploded  at  the  same  instant.  The  mines  were  then 
covered  with  soil  again  and  the  connecting  wires  taken 
some  hundred  yards  to  the  rear. 

At  that  time  the  French  were  making  attacks  every 
few  days.  We  were  told  to  abandon  the  foremost 
trench  should  an  attack  be  made.  The  mines  had  been 
laid  two  days  when  the  expected  attack  occurred,  and 
without  offering  any  great  resistance  we  retreated  to 
the  second  trench.  The  French  occupied  the  captured 
trench  without  knowing  that  several  thousands  of 
pounds  of  explosives  lay  buried  under  their  feet.  So 
as  to  cause  our  opponents  to  bring  as  many  troops  as 
possible  into  the  occupied  trench  we  pretended  to  make 
counter  attacks.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  French  trench 
was  soon  closely  manned  by  French  soldiers  who  tried  to 
retain  it. 

But  that  very  moment  our  mines  were  exploded. 
There  was  a  mighty  bang,  and  several  hundreds  of 
Frenchmen  were  literally  torn  to  pieces  and  blown  up 
into  the  air.  It  all  happened  in  a  moment.  Parts  of 
human  bodies  spread  over  a  large  stretch  of  ground, 
and  the  arms,  legs,  and  rags  of  uniforms  hanging  in  the 
trees,  were  the  only  signs  of  a  well  planned  mass  mur- 


FIGHTING  IN  THE  ARGONXES  151 

der.  In  view  of  that  catastrophe  all  we  had  experi- 
enced before  seemed  to  us  to  be  child's  play.  That 
"  heroic  deed  "  was  celebrated  by  a  lusty  hurrah. 

For  some  days  one  had  gained  a  little  advantage, 
only  to  lose  it  again  soon.  In  order  to  make  advances 
the  most  diverse  methods  were  used,  as  was  said  before. 
The  mining  section  would  cut  a  subterranean  passage 
up  to  the  enemy's  position.  The  passage  would  branch 
out  to  the  right  and  left  a  yard  or  so  before  the  posi- 
tion of  our  opponent,  and  run  parallel  with  it.  The 
work  takes  of  course  weeks  to  accomplish,  for  the  whole 
of  the  loosened  soil  must  be  taken  to  the  rear  on  small 
mining  wagons.  Naturally,  the  soil  taken  out  must  not 
be  heaped  in  one  place,  for  if  that  were  done  the  enemy 
would  get  wind  of  our  intentions  and  would  spoil  every- 
thing by  countermining.  As  soon  as  work  is  advanced 
far  enough  the  whole  passage  running  parallel  with  the 
enemy's  trench  is  provided  with  explosives  and  dammed 
up.  When  the  mine  is  exploded  the  whole  of  the  en- 
emy's trench  is  covered  by  the  soil  that  is  thrown  up, 
burying  many  soldiers  alive.  Usually  such  an  explo- 
sion is  followed  by  an  assault.  The  sapping  section, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  to  dig  open  trenches  running 
towards  the  enemy's  position.  These  are  connected  by 
transversal  trenches,  the  purpose  being  to  get  one's 
own  position  always  closer  to  the  enemy's.  As  soon 
as  one's  position  has  approached  near  enough  to  make 
it  possible  to  throw  hand  grenades  into  the  enemy's  po- 
sition the  hand  grenade  sections  have  to  take  up  their 
places  and  bombard  the  enemy's  trenches  continually 
with  hand  grenades,  day  and  night. 

Some  few  hundred  yards  to  the  rear  are  the  heavy 
modern  mine  throwers  firing  a  projectile  weighing  140 
pounds.      Those    projectiles,    which    look    like     sugar 


152        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

loaves,  flv  cumbrously  over  to  the  enemy  where  they 
do  great  damage.  The  trade  of  war  must  not  stop  at 
night ;  so  the  darkness  is  made  bright  by  means  of 
illuminating  rockets.  The  illuminating  cartridge  is 
fired  from  a  pistol,  and  for  a  second  all  is  bright  as  day. 
As  all  that  kind  of  work  was  done  by  sappers  the  French 
hated  the  sappers  especially,  and  French  prisoners  often 
told  us  that  German  prisoners  with  white  buttons  and 
black  ribbons  on  their  caps  (sappers)  would  be  treated 
without  any  mercy.  Warned  by  the  statements  of 
those  prisoners  nearly  all  provided  themselves  with  in- 
fantry uniforms.  We  knew  that  we  had  gradually  be- 
come some  specialty  in  the  trenches. 

If  the  infantry  were  molested  somewhere  by  the  en- 
emy's hand  grenades  they  used  to  come  running  up  to 
us  and  begged  us  to  go  and  meet  the  attack.  Each  of 
us  received  a  cigar  to  light  the  hand  grenades,  and  then 
we  were  off.  Ten  or  twenty  of  us  rained  hand  grenades 
on  the  enemy's  trench  for  hours  until  one's  arm  got  too 
stiff  with  throwing. 

Thus  the  slaughter  continued,  day  after  day,  night 
after  night.  We  had  48  hours  in  the  trenches  and  12 
hours'  sleep.  It  was  found  impossible  to  divide  the 
time  differently,  for  we  were  too  few.  The  whole  of 
the  forest  had  been  shot  and  torn  to  tatters.  The  ar- 
tillery was  everywhere  and  kept  the  villages  behind  the 
enemy's  position  under  fire.  Once  one  of  the  many  bat- 
teries which  we  always  passed  on  our  way  from  camp  to 
the  front  was  just  firing  when  we  came  by.  I  interro- 
gated one  of  the  sighting  gunners  what  their  target 
might  be.  "  Some  village  or  other,"  the  gunner  replied. 
The  representative  of  the  leader  of  the  batter}%  a  lieu- 
tenant-colonel, was  present.  One  of  my  mates  inquired 
whether  women  and  children  might  not  be  in  the  villages. 


FIGHTING  IN  THE  ARGONNES  15S 

"  That's  neither  here  nor  there,"  said  the  lieutenant- 
colonel,  "  the  women  and  children  are  French,  too,  so 
what's  the  harm  done?  Even  their  litter  must  be  anni- 
hilated so  as  to  knock  out  of  that  nation  for  a  hundred 
years  any  idea  of  war." 

If  that  "  gentleman  "  thought  to  win  applause  he 
was  mistaken.  We  went  our  way,  leaving  him  to  his 
"  enjoyment." 

On  that  day  an  assault  on  the  enemy's  position 
had  been  ordered,  and  we  had  to  be  in  our  places  at 
seven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  67th  regiment  was 
to  attack  punctually  at  half  past  eight,  the  sappers 
taking  the  lead.  The  latter  had  been  provided  with 
hand  grenades  for  that  purpose.  We  were  only  some 
twenty  yards  away  from  the  enemy.  Those  attacks, 
which  were  repeated  every  week,  were  prepared  by  artil- 
lery fire  half  an  hour  before  the  assault  began.  The 
artillery  had  to  calculate  their  fire  very  carefully,  be- 
cause the  distance  between  the  trench  and  that  of  the 
enemy  was  very  small.  That  distance  varied  from  three 
to  a  hundred  yards,  it  was  nowhere  more  than  that. 
At  our  place  it  was  twenty  yards.  Punctually  at  eight 
o'clock  the  artillery  began  to  thunder  forth.  The  first 
three  shots  struck  our  own  trench,  but  those  following 
squarely  hit  the  mark,  i.e.,  the  French  trench.  The 
artillery  had  got  the  exact  range  and  then  the  volleys 
of  whole  batteries  began  to  scream  above  our  heads. 
Every  time  the  enemy's  trench  or  the  roads  leading 
to  it  were  hit  with  wonderful  accuracy.  One  could  hear 
the  wounded  cry,  a  sign  that  many  a  one  had  already 
been  crippled.  An  artillery  officer  made  observa- 
tions in  the  first  trench  and  directed  the  fire  by  tele- 
phone. 

The  artillery  became  silent  exactly  at  half  past  eight, 


154       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAh  EXPERIENCE 

and  we  passed  to  the  assault.  But  the  11th  com- 
pany of  regiment  No.  67,  of  which  I  spoke  before, 
found  itself  in  a  such  a  violent  machine-gun  fire  that 
eighteen  men  had  been  killed  a  few  paces  from  our 
trench.  The  dead  and  wounded  had  got  entangled  in 
the  wild  jumble  of  the  trees  and  branches  encumbering 
the  ground.  Whoever  could  run  tried  to  reach  the 
enemy's  trench  as  quickly  as  possible.  Some  of  the 
enemy  defended  themselves  desperately  in  their  trench, 
which  was  filled  with  mud  and  water,  and  violent  hand 
to  hand  fighting  ensued.  We  stood  in  the  water  up  to 
our  knees,  killing  the  rest  of  our  opponents.  Seriously 
wounded  men  were  lying  flat  in  the  mud  with  only  their 
mouths  and  noses  showing  above  the  water.  But  what 
did  we  care!  They  were  stamped  deeper  in  the  mud, 
for  we  could  not  see  where  we  were  stepping;  and  so 
we  rolled  up  the  whole  trench.  Thereupon  the  con- 
quered position  was  fortified  as  well  as  it  could  be  done 
in  all  haste.  Again  we  had  won  a  few  yards  of  the 
Argonnes  at  the  price  of  many  lives.  That  trench  had 
changed  its  owners  innumerable  times  before,  a  matter 
of  course  in  the  Argonnes,  and  we  awaited  the  usual 
counter  attack. 

Presently  the  "  mules "  began  to  get  active. 
"  Mules  "  are  the  guns  of  the  French  mountain  artil- 
lery. As  those  guns  are  drawn  by  mules,  the  soldier 
in  the  Argonnes  calls  them  "  mules  "  for  short.  They 
are  very  light  guns  with  a  flat  trajectory,  and  are 
fired  from  a  distance  of  only  50-100  yards  behind  the 
French  front.  The  shells  of  those  guns  whistled  above 
our  heads.  Cutting  their  way  through  the  branches 
they  fly  along  with  lightning  rapidity  to  explode  in  or 
above  some  trench.  In  consequence  of  the  rapid  flight 
and  the  short  distance  the  noise  of  the  firing  and  the 


FIGHTING  IN  THE  ARGONNES  155 

explosion  almost  unite  in  a  single  bang.  Those 
"  mules  "  are  much  feared  by  the  German  soldiers,  be- 
cause those  guns  are  active  day  and  night.  Thus  day 
by  day  we  lived  through  the  same  misery. 


XIX 

CHRISTMAS    IN    THE    TRENCHES 

Winter  had  arrived  and  it  was  icy  cold.  The 
trenches,  all  of  which  had  underground  water,  had  been 
turned  into  mere  mud  holes.  The  cold  at  night  was 
intense,  and  we  had  to  do  48  hours'  work  with  12  hours' 
sleep.  Every  week  we  had  to  make  an  attack  the  re- 
sult of  which  was  in  no  proportion  to  the  immense 
losses.  During  the  entire  four  months  that  I  was  in 
the  Argonnes  we  had  a  gain  of  terrain  some  400  yards 
deep.  The  following  fact  will  show  the  high  price  that 
was  paid  in  human  life  for  that  little  piece  of  France. 
All  the  regiments  (some  of  these  were  the  infantry 
regiments  Nos.  145,  67,  173,  and  the  Hirschberg 
sharpshooting  battalion  No.  5)  had  their  own  ceme- 
tery. When  we  were  relieved  in  the  Argonnes  there 
were  more  dead  in  our  cemetery  than  our  regiment 
counted  men.  The  67th  regiment  had  buried  more 
than  2000  men  in  its  cemetery,  all  of  whom,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  sappers,  had  belonged  to  regiment 
No.  67.  Not  a  day  passed  without  the  loss  of  human 
lives,  and  on  a  "  storming  day  "  death  had  an  extraor- 
dinarily rich  harvest.  Each  day  had  its  victims,  some- 
times more,  sometimes  fewer.  It  must  appear  quite 
natural  that  under  such  conditions  the  soldiers  were 
not  in  the  best  of  moods.  The  men  were  all  completely 
stupefied.  Just  as  they  formerly  went  to  work  regu- 
larly to  feed  the  wife  and  children  they  now  went  to 

156 


CHRISTMAS  IN  THE  TRENCHES  157 

the  trenches  in  just  the  same  regular  way.  That  busi- 
ness of  slaughtering  and  working  had  become  an  every 
day  affair.  When  they  conversed  it  was  always  the 
army  leaders,  the  Crown  Prince  and  Lieutenant-General 
von  Mudra,  the  general  in  command  of  the  16th  Army 
Corps,  that  were  most  criticized. 

The  troops  in  the  Argonnes  belonged  to  the  16th 
Army  Corps,  to  the  33rd  and  34th  division  of  infantry. 
Neither  of  the  two  leaders,  neither  the  Crown  Prince 
nor  von  Mudra,  have  I  ever  seen  in  the  trenches.  The 
staff  of  the  Crown  Prince  had  among  its  members  the 
old  General-Fieldmarshal  Count  von  Haeseler,  the 
former  commander  of  the  16th  Army  Corps,  a  man  who 
in  times  of  peace  was  already  known  as  a  relentless 
slave  driver.  The  "  triplets,"  as  we  called  the  trio, 
the  Crown  Prince,  von  Mudra,  and  Count  von  Haeseler, 
were  more  hated  by  most  of  the  soldiers  than  the  French- 
man who  was  out  with  his  gun  to  take  our  miserable 
life. 

Many  miles  behind  the  front  the  scion  of  the  Hohen- 
zollerns  found  no  difficulty  to  spout  his  "  knock  them 
hard !  "  and,  at  the  price  of  thousands  of  human  lives, 
to  make  himself  popular  with  the  patriots  at  home 
who  were  sitting  there  behind  the  snug  stove  or  at  the 
beer  table  complaining  that  we  did  not  advance  fast 
enough.  Von  Mudra  got  the  order  "  Pour  le  merite  " ; 
they  did  not  think  of  his  soldiers  who  had  not  seen  a 
bed,  nor  taken  off  their  trousers  or  boots  for  months; 
these  were  provided  with  food  —  and  shells,  and  were 
almost  being  eaten  up  by  vermin. 

That  wc  were  covered  with  body  lice  was  not  to  be 
wondered  at,  for  we  had  scarcely  enough  water  for 
drinking  purposes,  and  could  not  think  of  having  a 
wash.     We  had  worn  our  clothes  for  months  without 


158       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

changing  them;  the  hair  on  our  heads  and  our  beards 
had  grown  to  great  length.  When  we  had  some  hours 
in  which  to  rest,  the  lice  would  not  let  us  sleep. 

The  air  in  the  shelters  was  downright  pestiferous, 
and  to  that  foul  stench  of  perspiration  and  putrefac- 
tion was  added  the  plague  of  lice.  At  times  one  was 
sitting  up  for  hours  and  could  not  sleep,  though  one 
was  dead  tired.  One  could  catch  lice,  and  the  more 
one  caught  the  worse  they  got.  We  were  urgently  in 
want  of  sleep,  but  it  was  impossible  to  close  the  eyes 
on  account  of  the  vermin.  We  led  a  loathsome,  piti- 
ful life,  and  at  times  we  said  to  one  another  that  no- 
body at  home  even  suspected  the  condition  we  were  in. 
We  often  told  one  another  that  if  later  on  we  should 
relate  to  our  families  the  facts  as  they  really  were  they 
would  not  believe  them.  Many  soldiers  tried  to  put  our 
daily  experience  in  verse. 

There  were  many  of  such  jingles  illustrating  our 
barbarous  handicraft. 

It  was  in  the  month  of  December  and  the  weather  was 
extremely  cold.  At  times  we  often  stood  in  the  trenches 
with  the  mud  running  into  our  trousers'  pockets.  In 
those  icy  cold  nights  we  used  to  sit  in  the  trenches 
almost  frozen  to  a  lump  of  ice,  and  when  utter  exhaus- 
tion sometimes  vanquished  us  and  put  us  to  sleep  we 
found  our  boots  frozen  to  the  ground  on  waking  up. 
Quite  a  number  of  soldiers  suffered  from  frost-bitten 
limbs;  it  was  mostly  their  toes  that  were  frost-bitten. 
They  had  to  be  taken  to  the  hospital.  The  soldiers 
on  duty  fired  incessantly  so  as  to  keep  their  fingers 
warm. 

Not  all  the  soldiers  are  as  a  rule  kept  ready  to 
give  battle.  If  no  attack  is  expected  or  intended,  only 
sentries  occupy  the  trench.     About  three  yards  apart 


CHRISTMAS  IN  THE  TRENCHES  159 

a  man  is  posted  behind  his  protective  shield  of  steel. 
Nevertheless  all  the  men  are  in  the  trench.  The  sen- 
tries keep  their  section  under  a  continual  fire,  espe- 
cially when  it  is  cold  and  dark.  The  fingers  get  warm 
when  one  pulls  the  trigger.  Of  course,  one  cannot 
aim  in  the  darkness,  and  the  shots  are  fired  at  random. 
The  sentry  sweeps  his  section  so  that  no  hostile  pa- 
trol can  approach,  for  he  is  never  safe  in  that  thicket. 
Thus  it  happens  that  the  firing  is  generally  more  vio- 
lent at  night  than  at  day ;  but  there  is  never  an  inter- 
val. The  rifles  are  fired  continually ;  the  bullets  keep 
whistling  above  our  trench  and  patter  against  the 
branches.  The  mines,  too,  come  flying  over  at  night, 
dropping  at  a  high  angle.  Everybody  knows  the 
scarcely  audible  thud,  and  knows  at  once  that  it  is  a 
mine  without  seeing  anything.  He  warns  the  others 
by  calling  out,  "  Mine  coming ! "  and  everybody  looks 
in  the  darkness  for  the  "  glow-worm,"  i.e.,  the  burn- 
ing fuse  of  the  mine.  The  glowing  fuse  betrays  the 
direction  of  the  mine,  and  there  are  always  a  few  short 
seconds  left  to  get  round  some  corner.  The  same  is 
the  case  with  the  hand  grenades.  They,  too,  betray 
the  line  of  their  flight  at  night  by  their  burning  fuse. 
If  they  do  not  happen  to  arrive  in  too  great  numbers 
one  mostly  succeeds  in  getting  out  of  their  way.  In 
daylight  that  is  not  so  hard  because  one  can  overlook 
everything.  It  often  happens  that  one  cannot  save  one- 
self in  time  from  the  approaching  hand  grenade.  In 
that  case  there  is  only  one  alternative  —  either  to  re- 
main alive  or  be  torn  to  atoms.  Should  a  hand  grenade 
suddenly  fall  before  one's  feet  one  picks  it  up  with- 
out hesitation  as  swiftly  as  possible  and  throws  it  away, 
if  possible  back  into  the  enemy's  trench.  Often,  how- 
ever, the  fuse  is  of  .such  a  length  that  the  grenade  does 


160       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

Mot  even  explode  after  reaching  the  enemy's  trench 
again,  and  the  Frenchman  throws  it  back  again  with 
fabulous  celerity.  In  order  to  avoid  the  danger  of 
having  a  grenade  returned  the  fuse  is  made  as  short 
as  possible,  and  yet  a  grenade  will  come  back  now  and 
again  in  spite  of  all.  To  return  a  grenade  is  of  course 
dangerous  work,  but  a  man  has  no  great  choice ;  if  he 
leaves  the  grenade  where  it  drops  he  is  lost,  as  he  can- 
not run  away;  and  he  knows  he  will  be  crushed  to 
atoms,  and  thus  his  only  chance  is  to  pick  up  the 
grenade  and  throw  it  away  even  at  the  risk  of  having 
the  bomb  explode  in  his  hand.  I  know  of  hand  grenades 
thrown  by  the  French  that  flew  hither  and  thither  sev- 
eral times.  One  was  thrown  by  the  French  and  imme- 
diately returned ;  it  came  back  again  in  an  instant,  and 
again  we  threw  it  over  to  them;  it  did  not  reach  the 
enemy's  trench  that  time,  but  exploded  in  the  air. 

Though  in  general  the  infantry  bullets  cannot  do 
much  damage  while  one  is  in  the  trench  it  happens  daily 
that  men  are  killed  by  ricochet  bullets.  The  thousands 
of  bullets  that  cut  through  the  air  every  minute  all 
pass  above  our  heads.  But  some  strike  a  tree  or  branch 
and  glance  off.  If  in  that  case  they  hit  a  man  in 
the  trench  they  cause  terrible  injuries,  because  they  do 
not  strike  with  their  heads  but  lengthwise.  Whenever 
we  heard  of  dum-dum  bullets  we  thought  of  those 
ricochet  bullets,  though  we  did  not  doubt  that  there 
were  dum-dum  bullets  in  existence.  I  doubt,  however, 
if  dum-dum  bullets  are  manufactured  in  factories,  for 
the  following  reasons :  —  first,  because  a  dum-dum  bul- 
let can  easily  damage  the  barrel  of  a  rifle  and  make  it 
useless ;  secondly,  because  the  average  soldier  would 
refuse  to  carry  such  ammunition,  for  if  a  man  is  cap- 
tured and  such  bullets  are  found  on  him,  the  enemy  in 


CHRISTMAS  IN  THE  TRENCHES  161 

whose  power  he  is  would  punish  him  by  the  laws  of  war 
as  pitilessly  as  such  an  inhuman  practice  deserves  to 
be  punished.  Generally,  of  course,  a  soldier  only  exe- 
cutes his  orders. 

However,  there  exist  dum-dum  bullets,  as  I  mentioned 
before.  They  are  manufactured  by  the  soldiers  them- 
selves. If  the  point  is  filed  or  cut  off  a  German  in- 
fantry bullet,  so  that  the  nickel  case  is  cut  through 
and  the  lead  core  is  laid  bare,  the  bullet  explodes  when 
striking  or  penetrating  an  object.  Should  a  man  be 
hit  in  the  upper  arm  by  such  a  projectile  the  latter,  by 
its  explosive  force,  can  mangle  the  arm  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  it  only  hangs  by  a  piece  of  skin. 

Christmas  came  along,  and  we  still  found  ourselves 
at  the  same  place  without  any  hope  of  a  change.  We 
received  all  kinds  of  gifts  from  our  relations  at  home 
and  other  people.  We  were  at  last  able  to  change  our 
underwear  which  we  had  worn  for  months. 

Christmas  in  the  trenches!  It  was  bitterly  cold. 
We  had  procured  a  pine  tree,  for  there  were  no  fir  trees 
to  be  had.  We  had  decorated  the  tree  with  candles  and 
cookies,  and  had  imitated  the  snow  with  wadding.^ 

Christmas  trees  were  burning  everywhere  in  the 
trenches,  and  at  midnight  all  the  trees  were  lifted  on  to 
the  parapet  with  their  burning  candles,  and  along  the 
whole  line  German  soldiers  began  to  sing  Christmas 
songs  in  chorus.  "  0,  thou  blissful,  O,  thou  joyous, 
mercy  bringing  Christmas  time!"  Hundreds  of  men 
were  singing  the  song  in  that  fearful  wood.  Not  a 
shot  was  fired ;  the  French  had  ceased  firing  along  the 
whole  line.  That  night  I  was  with  a  company  that 
was  only  five  paces  away  from  the  enemy.  The  Christ- 
mas candles  were  burning  brightly,  and  were  renewed 
again  and  again.     For  the  first  time  we  heard  no  shots. 


162       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

From  everywhere,  throughout  the  forest,  one  could  hear 
powerful  carols  come  floating  over  — "  Peace  on 
earth  — " 

The  French  left  their  trenches  and  stood  on  the 
parapet  without  any  fear.  There  they  stood,  quite 
overpowered  by  emotion,  and  all  of  them  with  cap  in 
hand.  We,  too,  had  issued  from  our  trenches.  We  ex- 
changed gifts  with  the  French  —  chocolate,  cigarettes, 
etc.  They  were  all  laughing,  and  so  were  we;  why, 
we  did  not  know.  Then  everybody  went  back  to  his 
trench,  and  incessantly  the  carol  resounded,  ever  more 
solemnly,  ever  more  longingly  — "  0,  thou  blissful  — " 

All  around  silence  reigned;  even  the  murdered  trees 
seemed  to  listen ;  the  charm  continued,  and  one  scarcely 
dared  to  speak.  Why  could  it  not  always  be  as  peace- 
ful? We  thought  and  thought,  we  were  as  dreamers, 
and  had  forgotten  everything  about  us. —  Suddenly 
a  shot  rang  out ;  then  another  one  was  fired  somewhere. 
The  spell  was  broken.  All  rushed  to  their  rifles.  A 
rolling  fire.     Our  Christmas  was  over. 

We  took  up  again  our  old  existence.  A  young  in- 
fantryman stood  next  to  me.  He  tried  to  get  out  of 
the  trench.  I  told  him :  "  Stay  here ;  the  French  will 
shoot  you  to  pieces."  "  I  left  a  box  of  cigars  up 
there,  and  must  have  it  back."  Another  one  told  him 
to  wait  till  things  quieted  down  somewhat.  "  They 
won't  hit  me ;  I  have  been  here  three  months,  and  they 
never  caught  me  yet."     "  As  you  wish ;  go  ahead!  " 

Scarcely  had  he  put  his  head  above  the  parapet  when 
he  tumbled  back.  Part  of  his  brains  was  sticking  to 
my  belt.  His  cap  flew  high  up  into  the  air.  His  skull 
was  shattered.  He  was  dead  on  the  spot.  His  trials 
were  over.  The  cigars  were  later  on  fetched  by  an- 
other man. 


CHRISTMAS  IN  THE  TRENCHES  163 

On  the  following  Christmas  day  an  army  order  was 
read  out.     We  were  forbidden  to  wear  or  have  in  our 
possession  things  of  French  origin;  for,  every  soldier 
who  was  found  in  possession  of  such  things  would  be 
put   before   a    court-martial    as    a   marauder   by    the 
French  if  they  captured  him.     We  were  forbidden  to 
use  objects  captured  from  the  French,  and  we  were 
especially  forbidden  to  make  use  of  woolen  blankets, 
because  the  French  were  infected  with  scabies.     Scabies 
is  an  itching  skin  disease,  which  it  takes  at  least  a 
week  to  cure.     But  the  order  had  a  contrary  effect. 
If  one  was  the  owner  of  such  an  "  itch-blanket "  one 
had  a  chance  of  getting  into  the  hospital  for  some  days. 
The  illness  was  not  of  a  serious  nature,  and  one  was 
at  least  safe  from  bullets  for  a  few  days.     Every  day 
soldiers  were  sent  to  the  hospital,  and  we,  too,  were 
watching  for  a  chance  to  grab  such  a  French  blanket. 
What  did  a  man  care,  if  he  could  only  get  out  of  that 
hell! 


XX 


a 


THE        ITCH     A    SAVIOE 


On  January  5th  the  Germans  attacked  along  the 
whole  forest  front,  and  took  more  than  1800  prisoners. 
We  alone  had  captured  700  men  of  the  French  infan- 
try regiment  No.  120.  The  hand  to  hand  fighting 
lasted  till  six  o'clock  at  night.  On  that  day  I,  together 
with  another  sapper,  got  into  a  trench  section  that 
was  still  being  defended  by  eight  Frenchmen.  We 
could  not  back  out,  so  we  had  to  take  up  the  unequal 
struggle.  Fortunately  we  were  well  provided  with 
hand  grenades.  We  cut  the  fuses  so  short  that  they  ex- 
ploded at  the  earliest  moment.  I  threw  one  in  the  midst 
of  the  eight  Frenchmen.  They  had  scarcely  escaped 
the  first  one,  when  the  second  arrived  into  which  they 
ran.  We  utilized  their  momentary  confusion  by  throw- 
ing five  more  in  quick  succession.  We  had  reduced  our 
opponents  to  four.  Then  we  opened  a  rifle  fire,  creep- 
ing closer  and  closer  up  to  them.  Their  bullets  kept 
whistling  above  our  heads.  One  of  the  Frenchmen  was 
shot  in  the  mouth ;  three  more  were  left.  These  turned 
to  flee.  In  such  moments  one  is  seized  with  an  inde- 
scribable rage  and  forgets  all  about  the  danger  that 
surrounds  one.  We  had  come  quite  near  to  them,  when 
the  last  one  stumbled  and  fell  forward  on  his  face.  In 
a  trice  I  was  on  him ;  he  fought  desperately  with  his 
fists ;  my  mate  was  following  the  other  two.  I  kept 
on  wrestling  with  my  opponent.     He  was  bleeding  from 

164 


THE  "ITCH"- A  SAVIOR  i65 

his  mouth ;  I  had  knocked  out  some  of  his  teeth.     Then 
he  surrendered  and  raised  his  hands.     I  let  go  and  then 
had  a  good  look  at  him.     He  was  some  35  years  old, 
about  ten  years  older  than  myself.     I  now  felt  sorry  for 
him.     He  pointed  to  his  wedding  ring,  talking  to  me  all 
the  while.     I  understood  what  he  wanted  -  he  wanted 
to  be  kept  alive.     He  handed  me  his  bottle,  inviting  me 
to   drink  wine.     He   cried;   maybe  he   thought   of  his 
wife  and  children.     I  pressed  his  hand,  and  he  showed 
me  his  bleeding  teeth.     "You  are   a   silly   fellow,"  I 
told  him ;  «  you  have  been  lucky.     The  few  missing  teeth 
dont  matter.     For  you  the  slaughtering  is  finished; 
come  along!"     I  was  glad  I  had  not  killed  him,  and 
took  him  along  myself  so  as  to  protect  him  from  being 
ill-treated.     When  I  handed  him  over  he  pressed  my 
hand  thankfully  and  laughed;  he  was  happy  to  be  safe. 
However  bad  the  time  he  might  have  as  prisoner  he 
would  be  better  off  at  any  rate  than  in  the  trenches. 
At  least  he  had  a  chance  of  getting  home  again. 

In  the  evening  we  took  some  of  the  forbidden 
blankets,  hundreds  of  which  we  had  captured  that  day. 
I  en  of  us  were  lying  in  a  shelter,  all  provided  with 
blankets.  Everybody  wanted  to  get  the  "  itch,"  how- 
ever strange  that  may  sound.  We  undressed  and  rolled 
ourselves  in  those  blankets.  Twenty-four  hours  later 
little  red  pimples  showed  themselves  all  over  the  body 
and  twelve  men  reported  sick.  The  blankets  were  used 
in  the  whole  company,  but  all  of  them  had  not  the  de- 
sired effect.  The  doctor  sent  nine  of  us  to  the  hos- 
pital at  Montmedy,  and  that  very  evening  we  left  the 

lCTw  lShJhC:  ThC  railr°ad  d°Pot  at  Apremont 
had  been  badly  shelled;  the  next  station  was  Chatel. 
Both  places  are  a  little  more  than  three  miles  behind 
th^   front.     At  Apremont  the  prisoners   were  divided 


166       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

into  sections.  Some  of  the  prisoners  had  their  homes 
at  Apremont.  Their  families  were  still  occupying 
their  houses,  and  the  prisoners  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
pay  them  a  visit.  I  chanced  to  observe  one  of  those 
meetings  at  Apremont.  Two  men  of  the  landstrum  led 
one  of  the  prisoners  to  the  house  which  he  pointed  out 
to  them  as  his  own.  The  young  wife  of  the  prisoner 
was  sitting  in  the  kitchen  with  her  three  children.  We 
followed  the  men  into  the  house.  The  woman  became 
as  white  as  a  sheet  when  she  beheld  her  husband  sud- 
denly. They  rushed  to  meet  each  other  and  fell  into 
each  other's  arms.  We  went  out,  for  we  felt  that  we 
were  not  wanted.  The  wife  had  not  been  able  to  get 
the  slightest  signs  from  her  husband  for  the  last  five 
months,  for  the  German  forces  had  been  between  her 
and  him.  He,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been  in  the  trench 
for  months  knowing  that  his  wife  and  children  must 
be  there,  on  the  other  side,  very  near,  yet  not  to  be 
reached.  He  did  not  know  whether  they  were  alive  or 
dead.  He  heard  the  French  shells  scream  above  his 
head.  Would  they  hit  Apremont?  He  wondered 
whether  it  was  his  own  house  that  had  been  set  alight 
by  a  shell  and  was  reddening  the  sky  at  night.  He  did 
not  know.  The  uncertainty  tortured  him,  and  life  be- 
came hell.  Now  he  was  at  home,  though  only  for  a 
few  hours.  He  had  to  leave  again  a  prisoner ;  but  now 
he  could  send  a  letter  to  his  wife  by  the  field  post. 
He  had  to  take  leave.  She  had  nothing  she  could  give 
him  —  no  underwear,  no  food,  absolutely  nothing.  She 
had  lost  all  and  had  to  rely  on  the  charity  of  the  sol- 
diers. She  handed  him  her  last  money,  but  he  returned 
it.  We  could  not  understand  what  they  told  each 
other.  She  took  the  money  back;  it  was  German 
money,  five  and  ten  pfennig  pieces  and  some  coppers 


THE  "ITCH"— A  SAVIOR  167 

__  her  whole  belongings.     We  could  no  longer  contain 
ourselves  and  made  a  collection  among  ourselves.     We 
ffot  more  than  ten  marks  together  which  we  gave  to 
the  young  woman.     At  first  she  refused  to  take  it  and 
looked  at  her  husband.     Then  she  took  it  and  wanted 
to  kiss  our  hands.     We  warded  her  off,  and  she  ran 
to  the  nearest  canteen  and  bought  things.     Returning 
with  cigars,  tobacco,  matches,  and  sausage,  she  handed 
all   over    to   her   husband   with   a   radiant    face,     blie 
laughed,  once  again  perhaps  in  a  long  time,  and  sent  us 
eratef ul  looks.     The  children  clung  round  their  father 
and  kissed  him  again  and  again.     She  accompanied  her 
husband,  who  carried  two  of  the  kiddies    one  on  each 
arm,  while  his  wife  carried  the  third  child      Beaming 
with  happiness  the  family  marched  along  between  the 
two    landsturm    men    who    had    their   bayonets    fixed. 
When  they  had  to  take  leave,  all  of  them   parents  and 
children  began  to  weep.     She  knew  that  her  husband 
was  no  longer  in  constant  danger,  and  she  was  happy, 
for  though  she  had  lost  much,  she  still  had  her  most 
precious  possessions. 

Thousands  of  poor  men  and  women  have  met  such  a 

fate  near  their  homes. 

Regular  trains  left  Chatel.  We  quitted  the  place 
at  11  o'clock  at  night,  heartily  glad  to  leave  the  Ai- 
gonnes  behind  us.  We  had  to  change  trains  at  \ou- 
zieres,  and  took  the  train  to  Diedenhofen.  There  we 
saw  twelve  soldiers  with  fixed  bayonets  take  along 
three  Frenchmen.  They  were  elderly  men  in  civilian 
dress  We  had  no  idea  what  it  signified,  so  we  entered 
into  a  conversation  with  one  of  our  fellow  travelers. 
He  was  a  merchant,  a  Frenchman  living  at  Vouzieres, 
and  spoke  German  fluently.  The  merchant  was  on  a 
business  trip  to  S6dan,  and  told  us  that  the  three  civilian 


168       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE. 

prisoners  were  citizens  of  his  town.  He  said :  "  We 
obtain  our  means  of  life  from  the  German  military  au- 
thorities, but  mostly  we  do  not  receive  enough  to  live, 
and  the  people  have  nothing  left  of  their  own;  all  the 
cattle  and  food  have  been  commandeered.  Those  three 
men  refused  to  keep  on  working  for  the  military  author- 
ities, because  they  could  not  live  on  the  things  they  were 
given.  They  were  arrested  and  are  now  being  trans- 
ported to  Germany.  Of  course,  we  don't  know  what 
will  happen  to  them." 

The  man  also  told  us  that  all  the  young  men  had  been 
taken  away  by  the  Germans ;  all  of  them  had  been  in- 
terned in  Germany. 

At  Sedan  we  had  to  wait  for  five  hours ;  for  hos- 
pital trains  were  constantly  arriving.  It  was  2  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  of  the  following  day  when  we  reached 
Montmedy,  where  we  went  to  the  hospital.  There  all 
our  clothes  were  disinfected  in  the  "  unlousing  estab- 
lishment," and  we  could  take  a  proper  bath.  We  were 
lodged  in  the  large  barracks.  There  one  met  people 
from  all  parts  of  the  front,  and  all  of  them  had  only 
known  the  same  misery ;  there  was  not  one  among  them 
who  did  not  curse  this  war.  All  of  them  were  glad  to 
be  in  safety,  and  all  of  them  tried  their  best  to  be 
"  sick  "  as  long  as  possible.  Each  day  we  were  twice 
treated  with  ointment ;  otherwise  we  were  at  liberty  to 
walk  about  the  place. 

One  day  we  paid  a  visit  to  the  fortress  of  Mont- 
medy high  up  on  a  hill.  Several  hundreds  of  prisoners 
were  just  being  fed  there.  They  were  standing  about 
in  the  yard  of  the  fortress  and  were  eating  their  soup. 
One  of  the  prisoners  came  straight  up  to  me.  I  had 
not  noticed  him  particularly,  and  recognized  him  only 
when  he  stood  before  me.     He  was  the  man  I  had  strugj 


THE  "ITCH"— A  SAVIOR  169 

.led  with  on  January  5th,  and  we  greeted  each  other 
cordially.     He  had  brought  along  a  prisoner  who  spoke 
German  well  and  who  interpreted  for  us  all  we  had 
to  say  to  each  other.     He  had  seen  me  standing  about 
and  had  recognized  me  at  once.     Again  and  again  he 
told  me  how  glad  he  was  to  be  a  prisoner.     Like  my- 
self he  was  a  soldier  because  he  had  to  be,  and  not 
from  choice.     At  that  time  we  had  fought  with  each 
other  in  blind  rage;  for  a  moment  we  had  been  deadly 
enemies.     I  felt  happy  at  having  stayed  my  fury  at 
that  time,  and  again  I  became  aware  of  the  utter  idiocy 
of  that  barbarous   slaughter.     We  separated  with  a 
firm  handshake. 

A  fortnight  I  remained  at  the  hospital;  then  I  had 
to   return   to   the  front.     We  had  been   treated  well 
at  the  hospital,  so  we  started  on  our  return  journey 
with  mixed  feelings.     As  soon  as  we  arrived  at  Chatel, 
the  terminus,  we  heard  the  incessant  gun  fire.     It  was 
no  use  kicking,  we  had  to  go  into  the  forest  again. 
When  we  reached  our  old  camp,  we  found  that  different 
troops  were  occupying  it.     Our  company  had  left,  no- 
body knew  for  what  destination.     Wherever  we  asked, 
nobody  could  give  us  any  information.     So  we  had  to 
go  back  to  the  command  of  our  corps,  the  headquarters 
of  which  were  at  Corney  at  that  time.     We  left  Chatel 
again  by  a  hospital  train,  and  reached  Corney  after 
half  an  hour's  journey.     Corney  harbored  the  General 
Staff  of  the  16th  Army  Corps,  and  we  thought  they 
surely  ought  to  know  where  our  company  was.     Gen- 
eral  von  Mudra  and  his   officers  had  taken  up   their 
quarters  in  a  large  villa.     The  house  was  guarded  by 
three  double  sentries.     We  showed  our  pay  books  and 
hospital  certificates,  and  an  orderly  led  us  to  a  spacious 
room.     It  was  the  telephone  room.     There  the  wires 


170       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

from  all  the  divisional  fronts  ran  together,  and  the 
apparatus  were  in  constant  use.  A  sergeant-major 
looked  into  the  lists  and  upon  the  maps.  In  two  min- 
utes he  had  found  our  company.  He  showed  us  on  the 
map  where  it  was  fighting  and  where  its  camp  was. 
"The  camp  is  at  the  northern  end  of  Verennes,"  he 
said,  "  and  the  company  belongs  to  the  34th  division ; 
formerly  it  was  part  of  the  33rd.  The  position  it  is 
in  is  in  the  villages  of  Vauquois  and  Boureuilles." 
Then  he  explained  to  us  on  the  map  the  direction  we 
were  to  take,  and  we  could  trot  off.  We  returned  by 
rail  to  Chatel,  and  went  on  foot  from  there  to  Apre- 
mont.  We  spent  the  night  in  the  half  destroyed  depot 
of  Apremont.  In  order  to  get  to  Varennes  we  had  to 
march  to  the  south.  On  our  way  we  saw  French  pris- 
oners mending  the  roads.  Most  of  them  were  black 
colonial  troops  in  picturesque  uniforms.  On  that  road 
Austrian  motor  batteries  were  posted.  Three  of  those 
30.5-cm.  howitzers  were  standing  behind  a  rocky  slope, 
but  did  not  fire.  When  at  noon  we  reached  the  height 
of  Varennes  we  saw  the  whole  wide  plan  in  front  of 
us.  Varennes  itself  was  immediately  in  front  of  us  in 
the  valley.  A  little  farther  up  on  the  heights  was 
Vauquois.  No  houses  were  to  be  seen;  one  could  only 
notice  a  heap  of  rubbish  through  the  field  glasses. 
Shells  kept  exploding  in  that  rubbish  heap  continually, 
and  we  felt  a  cold  sweat  run  down  our  backs  at  the 
thought  that  the  place  up  there  was  our  destination. 
We  had  scarcely  passed  the  ridge  when  some  shells 
exploded  behind  us.  At  that  place  the  French  were 
shooting  with  artillery  at  individuals.  As  long  as 
Vauquois  had  been  in  their  power  they  had  been  able 
to  survey  the  whole  country,  and  we  comprehended  why 
that  heap  of  rubbish  was  so  bitterly  fought  for.     We 


THE  -  ITCH  ••_  A  SAVIOR  17, 

ran  down  the  slope  and  found  ourselves  in  Varennes 
The  southern  portion  of  the  village  had  been  h,W  ' 
p.eces  and  gutted.     Only  m0st  oi  the  chimnets  Itieh 

o  me  air.     Everywhere  we  saw  groups  of  sol 

's c:  r'sTnt't  rrn  ing  t  «-  ^ 

loaded  on  wagons  and  taken  awav      All  thZT 
brass,  tin,  and  ,ead  that  could  be  got  was  co^eT' 


XXI 

IN    THE    HELL    OF    VAUQUOIS 

We  soon  found  our  company,  and  our  comrades  told 
us  what  hell  they  had  gotten  into.  The  next  morning 
our  turn  came,  too.  We  had  to  reach  the  position  be- 
fore day-break,  for  as  soon  as  it  got  light  the  French 
kept  all  approaches  under  constant  fire.  There  was 
no  trace  of  trenches  at  Vauquois.  All  that  could  be 
seen  were  pieces  of  stones.  Not  a  stone  had  literally 
remained  on  the  other  at  Vauquois.  That  heap  of 
ruins,  once  a  village,  had  changed  hands  no  less  than 
fifteen  times.  When  we  arrived  half  of  the  place  was 
in  the  possession  of  the  Germans.  But  the  French 
dominated  the  highest  point,  whence  they  could  sur- 
vey the  whole  country  for  many  miles  around.  In  the 
absence  of  a  trench  we  sought  cover  behind  stones,  for 
it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  construct  trenches;  the 
artillery  was  shooting  everything  to  pieces. 

Thus  the  soldiers  squatted  behind  piles  of  stones 
and  fired  as  fast  as  their  rifles  would  allow.  Guns 
of  all  sizes  were  bombarding  the  village  incessantly. 
There  was  an  army  of  corpses,  Frenchmen  and  Ger- 
mans, all  lying  about  pell-mell.  At  first  we  thought 
that  that  terrible  state  of  things  was  only  temporary, 
but  after  a  few  days  we  recognized  that  a  slaughter 
worse  than  madness  was  a  continuous  state  of  things 
at  that  place.     Day  and  night,  ever  the  same.     With 

Verdun  as  a  base  of  operations  the  French  continually 

172 


IN  THE  HELL  OF  VAUQUOIS  173 

brought  up  fresh  masses  of  troops.  They  had  carried 
along  a  field  railroad  the  heavy  pieces  of  the  neighbor- 
ing forts  of  Verdun,  and  in  the  spring  of  1915  an  of- 
fensive of  a  local,  but  murderous  kind  was  begun.  The 
artillery  of  both  sides  bombarded  the  place  to  such  an 
extent  that  not  a  foot  of  ground  could  be  found  that 
was  not  torn  up  by  shells.  Thousands  upon  thousands 
of  shells  of  all  sizes  were  employed.  The  bombardment 
from  both  sides  lasted  three  days  and  three  nights,  un- 
til at  last  not  a  soldier,  neither  French  nor  German, 
was  left  in  the  vilage.  Both  sides  had  been  obliged  to 
retreat  before  the  infernal  fire  of  the  opponent,  for 
not  a  man  would  have  escaped  alive  out  of  that  inferno. 
The  whole  slope  and  height  were  veiled  in  an  impene- 
trable smoke.  In  the  evening  of  the  third  day  the  ene- 
my's bombardment  died  down  a  little,  and  we  were 
ordered  to  go  forward  again  into  the  shell  torn  ruins. 
It  was  not  yet  quite  dark  when  the  French  advanced  in 
close  order. 

We  were  in  possession  of  almost  the  whole  of  the 
village,  and  had  placed  one  machine-gun  next  to  the 
other.  We  could  see  the  projectiles  of  the  artillery 
burst  in  great  numbers  among  the  reserves  of  the  at- 
tackers. Our  machine-guns  literally  mowed  down  the 
first  ranks.  Five  times  the  French  renewed  their  at- 
tack during  that  night,  their  artillery  meanwhile  mak- 
ing great  gaps  in  our  ranks.  We  soldiers  calculated 
that  the  two  sides  had  together  some  three  or  four  thou- 
sand men  killed  in  that  one  night.  Next  morning  the 
French  eased  their  attacks,  and  their  guns  treated  us 
again  to  the  accustomed  drum  fire.  We  stood  it  until 
10  o'clock  in  the  morning;  then  we  retreated  again 
without  awaiting  orders,  leaving  innumerable  dead  men 
behind.     Again  the  French  advanced  in  the  face  of  a 


174       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

violent  German  artillery  fire,  and  effected  a  lodgment 
at  the  northern  edge  of  the  village  of  Vauquois  that  used 
to  be.  A  few  piles  of  stones  was  all  that  still  be- 
longed to  us.  We  managed  to  put  a  few  stones  before 
us  as  a  protection.  The  guns  of  neither  side  could 
hurt  us  or  them,  for  they,  the  enemy,  were  but  ten 
paces  away.  But  the  country  behind  us  was  plowed 
by  projectiles.  In  face  of  the  machine  gun  fire  it  was 
found  impossible  to  bring  up  ammunition. 

The  sappers  undid  the  coils  of  rope  worn  round 
their  bodies,  and  three  men  or  more  crept  back  with 
them.  One  of  them  was  killed ;  the  others  arrived  safely 
and  attached  the  packets  of  cartridges  to  the  rope. 
Thus  we  brought  up  the  ammunition  by  means  of  a 
rope  running  in  a  circle,  until  we  had  enough  or  till 
the  rope  was  shot  through.  At  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  we  attacked  again,  but  found  it  impossible  to 
rise  from  the  ground  on  account  of  the  hail  of  bullets. 
Everybody  was  shouting,  "  Sappers  to  the  front  with 
hand  grenades !  "  Not  a  sapper  stirred.  We  are  only 
human,  after  all. 

A  sergeant-major  of  the  infantry  came  creeping 
up.  He  looked  as  if  demented,  his  eyes  were  blood- 
shot. "You're  a  sapper?"  "Yes,"  "Advance!" 
"  Alone  ?  "  "  We're  coming  along ! "  We  had  to 
roar  at  each  other  in  order  to  make  ourselves  under- 
stood in  the  deafening,  confounded  row.  Another  sap- 
per lay  beside  me.  When  the  sergeant-major  saw  that 
he  could  do  nothing  with  me  he  turned  to  the  other 
fellow.  That  man  motioned  to  him  to  desist,  but  the 
sergeant-major  got  ever  more  insistent,  until  the  sap- 
per showed  him  his  dagger,  and  then  our  superior  slung 
his  hook.  Some  twenty  hand  grenades  were  lying  in 
front  of  us.     Ten  of  them  I  had  attached  to  my  belt 


IN  THE  HELL  OF  VAUQUOIS  175 

for  all  emergencies.     I  said  to  myself  that  if  all  of 
them  exploded  there  would  not  be  much  left  of  me.     I 
had  a  lighted  cigar  in  my  mouth.     I  lit  one  bomb  after 
the  other  and  threw  them  over  to  some  Frenchmen  who 
were  working  a  machine-gun  in  front  of  me,  behind  a 
heap  of  stones.     All  around  me  the  bullets  of  the  ma- 
chine-guns were  splitting  the  stones.     I  had  already 
thrown  four  grenades,  but  all  of  them  had  overshot  the 
mark.     I  took  some  stones  and  threw  them  to  find  out 
how  far  I  would  have  to  throw  in  order  to  hit  the 
fire  spitting  machine  in  front.     My  aim  got  more  ac- 
curate each  time  until  I  hit  the  barrel  of  the  gun.     "If 
it  had  only  been  a  hand  grenade,"  I  thought.     An  in- 
fantryman close  to  me  was  shot  through  the  shell  of 
one  ear,  half  of  which  was  cut  in  pieces;  the  blood 
was  streaming  down  his  neck.     I  had  no  more  material 
for  bandaging  except  some  wadding,  which  I  attached 
to  his  wound.     In  my  pocket  I  had  a  roll  of  insulat- 
ing ribbon,  rubber  used  to  insulate  wires;  with  that  I 
bandaged    him.     He     pointed    to     the    machine-gun. 
Thereupon  I  gave  him  my  cigar,  telling  him  to  keep 
it  well  alight  so  as  to  make  the  fuse  which  I  desired 
to  light  by  it  burn  well.     In  quick  succession  I  threw 
six  hand  grenades.     I  don't  know  how  many  of  them 
took  effect,  but  the  rags  of  uniforms  flying  about  and  a 
demolished   machine-gun   said   enough.     When   we   ad- 
vanced later  on  I  observed  three  dead  men  lying  round 
the  machine-gun. 

That  was  only  one  example  of  the  usual,  daily  oc- 
currences that  happen  day  and  night,  again  and  again 
and  everywhere,  and  the  immense  number  of  such  ac- 
tions of  individual  soldiers  makes  the  enormous  loss  of 
human  life  comprehensible. 

We  were  still  lying  there  without  proceeding  to  the 


176       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

attack.  Again  ammunition  was  brought  up  by  ropes 
from  the  rear.  A  hand  grenade  duel  ensued ;  hundreds 
of  hand  grenades  were  thrown  by  both  sides.  Things 
could  not  go  on  long  like  that ;  we  felt  that  something 
was  bound  to  happen.  Without  receiving  an  order  and 
yet  as  if  by  command  we  all  jumped  up  and  advanced 
with  the  dagger  in  our  hands  right  through  the  mur- 
derous fire,  and  engaged  in  the  maddest  hand  to  hand 
fighting.  The  daggers,  sharp  as  razors,  were  plunged 
into  head  after  head,  chest  after  chest.  One  stood  on 
corpses  in  order  to  make  other  men  corpses.  New  ene- 
mies came  running  up.  One  had  scarcely  finished  with 
one  when  three  more  appeared  on  the  scene. 

We,  too,  got  reinforcements.  One  continued  to 
murder  and  expected  to  be  struck  down  oneself  the  next 
moment.  One  did  not  care  a  cent  for  one's  life,  but 
fought  like  an  animal.  I  stumbled  and  fell  on  the 
stones.  At  that  very  moment  I  caught  sight  of  a  gi- 
gantic Frenchman  before  me  who  was  on  the  point  of 
bringing  his  sapper's  spade  down  on  me.  I  moved  aside 
with  lightning  speed,  and  the  blow  fell  upon  the  stone. 
In  a  moment  my  dagger  was  in  his  stomach  more  than 
up  to  the  hilt.  He  went  down  with  a  horrible  cry,  roll- 
ing in  his  blood  in  maddening  pain.  I  put  the  bloody 
dagger  back  in  my  boot  and  took  hold  of  the  spade. 
All  around  me  I  beheld  new  enemies.  The  spade  I 
found  to  be  a  handy  weapon.  I  hit  one  opponent  be- 
tween head  and  shoulder.  The  sharp  spade  half  went 
through  the  body;  I  heard  the  cracking  of  the  bones 
that  were  struck.  Another  enemy  was  close  to  me. 
I  dropped  the  spade  and  took  hold  of  my  dagger  again. 
All  happened  as  in  a  flash.  My  opponent  struck  me  in 
the  face,  and  the  blood  came  pouring  out  of  my  mouth 
and  nose.     We  began  to  wrestle  with  each  other.     I 


IN  THE  HELL  OF  VAUQUOIS  177 

had  the  dagger  in  my  right  hand.     We  had  taken  hold 
of  each  other  round  the  chest.     He  was  no  stronger 
than  myself,  but  he  held  me  as  firmly  as  I .held I  him. 
We  tried  to  fight  each  other  with  our  teeth      I  had 
the  dagger  in  my  hand,  but  could  not  strike.     Who 
was  it  To  be?     He  or  I?     One  of  us  two  -s  sure  to 
go  down.     I  got  the  dagger  in  such  a  position  that  its 
point  rested  on  his  back.     Then  I  pressed  his    remblmg 
Ldy   still   more   firmly   to   myself      He   fastened   h» 
teeth  in  my  shaggy  beard,  and  I  *f*^\^ 
I  pressed  him  still  more  firmly  so  that  his  ribs  almost 
began  to   crack   and,   summoning  all  my   strength,   1 
pushed  the  dagger  into  the  right  side  of  his  back    ^ 
below  the  shoulderblade.     In  frightful  pain  he  turned 
himself  round  several  times,  fell  on  his  face,  and  lay 
groaning  on  the  ground.     I  withdrew  my  dagger;  he 
bled  to  death  like  many  thousands. 

We  had  pushed  back  the  French  for  some  yards  when 
we  received  strong  assistance.  After  a  short  fight  the 
enemy  turned  and  fled,  and  we  followed  him  as  far  as 
the  southern  edge  of  the  village.  There  the  French 
made  a  counterattack  with  fresh  bodies  of  men  and 
threw  us  back  again  for  some  50  yards.  Then  the  at- 
tack was  halted,  and  we  found  ourselves  again  where  we 
had  been  at  the  beginning  of  that  four  days'  slaughter. 
Thousands  of  corpses  were  covering  the  ruins  of  Vau- 
quois,  all  sacrificed  in  vain. 


XXII 

SENT   ON    FURLOUGH 

For  four  days  and  nights,  without  food  and  sleep,  we 
had  been  raging  like  barbarians,  and  had  spent  all  our 
strength.  We  were  soon  relieved.  To  our  astonish- 
ment we  were  relieved  by  cavalry.  They  were  Saxon 
chasseurs  on  horseback  who  were  to  do  duty  as  infan- 
trymen. It  had  been  found  impossible  to  make  good 
the  enormous  losses  of  the  preceding  days  by  sending 
up  men  of  the  depot.  So  they  had  called  upon  the 
cavalry  who,  by  the  way,  were  frequently  employed  dur- 
ing that  time.  The  soldiers  who  had  been  in  a  life  and 
death  struggle  for  four  days  were  demoralized  to  such 
an  extent  that  they  had  no  longer  any  fighting  value. 
We  were  relieved  very  quietly,  and  could  then  return  to 
our  camp.  We  did  not  hear  before  the  next  day  that 
during  the  period  described  our  company  had  suffered 
a  total  loss  of  49  men.  The  fate  of  most  of  them  was 
unknown;  one  did  not  know  whether  they  were  dead  or 
prisoners  or  whether  they  lay  wounded  in  some  ambu- 
lance station. 

The  village  of  Varennes  was  continually  bombarded 
by  French  guns  of  large  size.  Several  French  families 
were  still  living  in  a  part  of  the  village  that  had  not 
been  so  badly  damaged.  Every  day  several  of  the  ene- 
my's 28-cm.  shells  came  down  in  that  quarter.  Though 
many  inhabitants  had  been  wounded  by  the  shells  the 
people  could  not  be  induced  to  leave  their  houses. 

178 


SENT  ON  FURLOUGH  179 

Our  quarters  were  situated  near  a  very  steep  slope 
and  were  thus  protected  against  artillery  fire.  They 
consisted  of  wooden  shanties  built  by  ourselves.  We 
had  brought  up  furniture  from  everywhere  and  had 
made  ourselves  at  home;  for  Varennes  was,  after  all, 
nearly  two  miles  behind  the  front.  But  all  the  shanties 
were  not  occupied,  for  the  number  of  our  men  dimin- 
ished from  day  to  day.  At  last  the  longed-for  men 
from  the  depot  arrived.  Many  new  sapper  formations 
had  to  be  got  together  for  all  parts  of  the  front,  and  it 
was  therefore  impossible  to  supply  the  existing  sapper 
detachments  with  their  regular  reserves.  Joyfully  we 
greeted  the  new  arrivals.  They  were,  as  was  always 
the  case,  men  of  very  different  ages ;  a  young  boyish 
volunteer  of  17  years  would  march  next  to  an  old  man 
of  the  landsturm  who  had  likewise  volunteered.  All  of 
them,  without  any  exception,  have  bitterly  repented  of 
their  "  free  choice  "  and  made  no  secret  of  it.  "  It's 
a  shame,"  a  comrade  told  me,  "  that  those  seventeen- 
year-old  children  should  be  led  to  the  slaughter,  and 
that  their  young  life  is  being  poisoned,  as  it  needs  must 
be  in  these  surroundings ;  scarcely  out  of  boyhood,  they 
are  being  shot  down  like  mad  dogs." 

It  took  but  a  few  days  for  the  volunteers  —  all  of 
them  without  an  exception  —  to  repent  bitterly  of  their 
resolve,  and  every  soldier  who  had  been  in  the  war  for 
any  length  of  time  would  reproach  them  when  they  gave 
expression  to  their  great  disappointment.  "  But  you 
have  come  voluntarily,"  they  were  told;  "we  had  to 
go,  else  we  should  have  been  off  long  ago."  Yet  we 
knew  that  all  those  young  people  had  been  under  some 
influence  and  had  been  given  a  wrong  picture  of  the 
war. 

Those  soldiers   who  had   been   in   the  war  from   the 


180       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

start  who  had  not  been  wounded,  but  had  gone  through 
all  the  fighting,  were  gradually  all  sent  home  on  fur- 
lough for  ten  days.  Though  our  company  contained 
but  14  unwounded  soldiers  it  was  very  hard  to  obtain 
the  furlough.  We  had  lost  several  times  the  number  of 
men  on  our  muster-roll,  but  all  our  officers  were  still  in 
good  physical  condition. 

It  was  not  until  September  that  I  managed  to  obtain 
furlough  at  the  request  of  my  relations,  and  I  left  for 
home  with  a  resolve  that  at  times  seemed  to  me  impos- 
sible to  execute.  All  went  well  until  I  got  to  Dieden- 
hofen. 

As  far  as  that  station  the  railroads  are  operated  by 
the  army  authorities.  At  Diedenhofen  they  are  taken 
over  by  the  Imperial  Railroads  of  Alsace-Lorraine  and 
the  Prusso-Hessian  State  Railroads.  So  I  had  to 
change,  and  got  on  a  train  that  went  to  Saarbruecken. 
I  had  scarcely  taken  a  seat  in  a  compartment  in  my 
dirty  and  ragged  uniform  when  a  conductor  came  along 
to  inspect  the  tickets.  Of  course,  I  had  no  ticket;  I 
had  only  a  furlough  certificate  and  a  pass  which  had 
been  handed  to  me  at  the  field  railroad  depot  of  Chatel. 
The  conductor  looked  at  the  papers  and  asked  me  again 
for  my  ticket.  I  drew  his  attention  to  my  pass. 
"  That  is  only  good  for  the  territory  of  the  war  opera- 
tions," he  said ;  "  you  are  now  traveling  on  a  state  rail- 
road and  have  to  buy  a  ticket." 

I  told  him  that  I  should  not  buy  a  ticket,  and  asked 
him  to  inform  the  station  manager.  "  You,"  I  told 
him,  "  only  act  according  to  instructions.  I  am  not 
angry  with  you  for  asking  of  me  what  I  shall  do  under 
no  circumstances."  He  went  off  and  came  back  with 
the  manager.  The  latter  also  inspected  my  papers  and 
told  me  I  had  to  pay  for  the  journey.     "  I  have  no 


SENT  ON  FURLOUGH  181 

means  for  that  purpose,"  I  told  him.  "  For  these  last 
three  years  I  have  been  in  these  clothes  "  (I  pointed  to 
my  uniform),  "  and  for  three  years  I  have  therefore 
been  without  any  income.  Whence  am  I  to  get  the  money 
to  pay  for  this  journey?"  "If  you  have  no  money 
for  traveling  you  can't  take  furlough."  I  thought 
to  myself  that  if  they  took  me  deep  into  France  they 
were  in  conscience  bound  to  take  me  back  to  where  they 
had  fetched  me.  Was  I  to  be  a  soldier  for  three  years 
and  fight  for  the  Fatherland  for  more  than  a  year  only 
to  find  that  now  they  refused  the  free  use  of  their  rail- 
roads to  a  ragged  soldier?  I  explained  that  I  was  not 
going  to  pay,  that  I  could  not  save  the  fare  from  the 
few  pfennigs'  pay.  I  refused  explicitly  to  pay  a  sol- 
dier's journey  with  my  private  money,  even  if  —  as 
was  the  case  here  —  that  soldier  was  myself.  Finally  I 
told  him,  "  I  must  request  you  to  inform  the  military 
railroad  commander;  the  depot  command  attends  to  sol- 
diers, not  you."  He  sent  me  a  furious  look  through  his 
horn  spectacles  and  disappeared.  Two  civilians  were 
sitting  in  the  same  compartment  with  me ;  they  thought 
it  an  unheard-of  thing  that  a  soldier  coming  from  the 
front  should  be  asked  for  his  fare.  Presently  the  depot 
commander  came  up  with  a  sergeant.  He  demanded  to 
see  my  furlough  certificate,  pay  books,  and  all  my  other 
papers. 

"  Have  you  any  money?  " 

"  No." 

"  Where  do  you  come  from?  " 

"  From  Chatel  in  the  Argonnes." 

"  How  long  were  you  at  the  front?  " 

"  In  the  fourteenth  month." 

"  Been  wounded  ?  " 

"  No." 


182       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

"  Have  you  no  money  at  all?  " 
"  No ;  you  don't  want  money  at  the  front." 
"  The  fare  must  be  paid.     If  you  can't,  the  company 
must  pay.     Please  sign  this  paper." 

I  signed  it  without  looking  at  it.  It  was  all  one  to 
me  what  I  signed,  as  long  as  they  left  me  alone.  Then 
the  sergeant  came  back. 

"  You  can  not  travel  in  that  compartment ;  you  must 
also  not  converse  with  travelers.  You  have  to  take  the 
first  carriage  marked  '  Only  for  the  military.'  Get  into 
that." 

"  I  see,"  I  observed ;  "  in  the  dogs'  compartment." 
He  turned  round  again  and  said,  "  Cut  out  those  re- 
marks." 

The  train  started,  and  I  arrived  safely  home.  After 
the  first  hours  of  meeting  all  at  home  again  had  passed 
I  found  myself  provided  with  faultless  underwear  and 
had  taken  the  urgently  needed  bath.  Once  more  I  could 
put  on  the  civilian  dress  I  had  missed  for  so  long  a 
time.  All  of  it  appeared  strange  to  me.  I  began  to 
think.  Under  no  conditions  was  I  going  to  return  to 
the  front.  But  I  did  not  know  how  I  should  succeed 
in  getting  across  the  frontier.  I  could  choose  between 
two  countries  only  —  Switzerland  and  Holland.  It 
was  no  use  going  to  Switzerland,  for  that  country  was 
surrounded  by  belligerent  states,  and  it  needed  only  a 
little  spark  to  bring  Switzerland  into  the  war,  and  then 
there  would  be  no  loophole  for  me.  There  was  only  the 
nearest  country  left  for  me  to  choose  —  Holland.  But 
how  was  I  to  get  there?  There  was  the  rub.  I  con- 
cocted a  thousand  plans  and  discarded  them  again. 
Nobody,  not  even  my  relatives,  must  know  about  it. 


XXIII 

THE    FLIGHT    TO    HOLLAND 

My  furlough  soon  neared  its  end ;  there  were  only 
four  days  left.  I  remembered  a  good  old  friend  in  a 
Rhenish  town.  My  plan  was  made.  Without  my  fam- 
ily noticing  it  I  packed  a  suit,  boots,  and  all  necessities, 
and  told  them  at  home  that  I  was  going  to  visit  my 
friend.  To  him  I  revealed  my  intentions,  and  he  was 
ready  to  help  me  in  every  possible  manner. 

My  furlough  was  over.  I  put  on  my  uniform,  and 
my  relations  were  left  in  the  belief  that  I  was  returning 
to  the  front.  I  went,  however,  to  my  friend  and 
changed  into  civilian  clothes.  I  destroyed  my  uniform 
and  arms,  throwing  the  lot  into  the  river  near  by. 
Thus  having  destroyed  all  traces,  I  left  and  arrived  at 
Cologne  after  some  criss-cross  traveling.  Thence  I 
journeyed  to  Duesseldorf  and  sta}Ted  at  night  at  an 
hotel.  I  had  already  overstayed  my  leave  several  days. 
Thousands  of  thoughts  went  through  my  brain.  I  was 
fully  aware  that  I  would  lose  my  life  if  everything  did 
not  come  to  pass  according  to  the  program.  I  intended 
to  cross  the  frontier  near  Vcnlo  (Holland).  I  knew, 
however,  that  the  frontier  was  closely  guarded. 

The  country  round  Vcnlo,  the  course  of  the  frontier 
in  those  parts  were  unknown  to  me;  in  fact,  I  was  a 
complete  stranger.  I  made  another  plan.  I  returned 
to  my  friend  and  told  him  that  it  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary for  me  to  get  to  know  the  frontier  district  and  to 
procure  a  map  showing  the  terrain.     I  also  informed 

183 


184.        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

him  that  I  had  to  get  hold  of  a  false  identification  pa- 
per. He  gave  me  a  landsturm  certificate  which  was  to 
identify  me  in  case  of  need.  In  my  note-book  I  drew 
the  exact  course  of  the  frontier  from  a  railway  map, 
and  then  I  departed  again. 

Dead  tired,  I  reached  Crefeld  that  night  by  the  last 
train.  I  could  not  go  on.  So  I  went  into  the  first 
hotel  and  hired  a  room.  I  wrote  the  name  that  was  on 
the  false  paper  into  the  register  and  went  to  sleep.  At 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning  there  was  a  knock  at  my 
door. 

"Who  is  there?" 

"  The  police." 

"The  police?" 

"  Yes ;  the  political  police." 

I  opened  the  door. 

"  Here  lives  .  .  .  ?  (he  mentioned  the  name  in  which 
I  had  registered). 

"  Yes." 

"  Have  you  any  identification  papers?  " 

"  If  you  please,"  I  said,  handing  him  the  landsturm 
certificate. 

"  Everything  in  order ;  pardon  me  for  having  dis- 
turbed you." 

"  You're  welcome ;  you're  welcome,"  I  hastened  to 
reply,  and  thought  how  polite  the  police  was. 

That  well-known  leaden  weight  fell  from  my  chest, 
but  I  had  no  mind  to  go  to  sleep  again.  Whilst  I  was 
dressing  I  heard  him  visit  all  the  guests  of  the  hotel. 
I  had  not  thought  of  the  customary  inspection  of 
strangers  in  frontier  towns.  It  was  a  good  thing  I  had 
been  armed  for  that  event. 

Without  taking  breakfast  (my  appetite  had  van- 
ished)  I  went  to  the  depot   and  risked  traveling  to 


THE  FLIGHT  TO  HOLLAND  185 

Kempten  in  spite  of  the  great  number  of  policemen  that 
were  about.  I  calculated  by  the  map  that  the  frontier 
was  still  some  fifteen  miles  away.  I  had  not  much  bag- 
gage with  me,  only  a  small  bag,  a  raincoat  and  an  um- 
brella. I  marched  along  the  country  road  and  in  five 
hours  I  reached  the  village  of  Herongen.  To  the  left 
of  that  place  was  the  village  of  Niederhofen.  Every- 
where I  saw  farmers  working  in  the  fields.  They  would 
have  to  inform  me  of  how  the  line  of  the  frontier  ran 
and  how  it  was  being  watched.  In  order  to  procure 
that  information  I  selected  only  those  people  who,  to 
judge  by  their  appearance,  were  no  "  great  lights  of  the 
church." 

Without  arousing  suspicion  I  got  to  know  that  the 
names  of  the  two  places  were  "  Herongen  "  and  "  Nie- 
derhofen," and  that  a  troop  of  cuirassiers  were  quar- 
tered at  Herongen.  The  man  told  me  that  the  soldiers 
were  lodged  in  the  dancing  hall  of  the  Schwarz  Inn. 
Presently  I  met  a  man  who  was  cutting  a  hedge.  He 
was  a  Hollander  who  went  home  across  the  frontier 
every  night ;  he  had  a  passport.  "  You  are  the  man 
for  me,"  I  thought  to  myself,  and  said  aloud  that  I  had 
met  several  Hollanders  in  that  part  of  the  country  (he 
was  the  first  one),  and  gave  him  a  cigar.  I  mentioned 
to  him  that  I  had  visited  an  acquaintance  in  the  Schwarz 
Inn  at  Herongen. 

"  Yes,"  he  said ;  "  they  are  there." 

"  But  my  friend  had  to  go  on  duty,  so  I  am  having 
a  look  round." 

"  They  have  got  plenty  to  do  near  the  frontier." 

"Indeed?" 

"  Every  thirty  minutes  and  oftcner  a  cavalry  patrol, 
and  every  quarter  of  an  hour  an  infantry  patrol  go 
scouting  along  the  frontier." 


186       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

"  And  how  does  the  frontier  run  ?  "  I  queried,  offer- 
ing him  a  light  for  his  cigar. 

He  showed  me  with  his  hand. 

"  Here  in  front  of  you,  then  right  through  the  woods, 
then  up  there;  those  high  steeples  towering  over  the 
woods  belong  to  the  factories  of  Venlo." 

I  knew  enough.  After  a  iew  remarks  I  left  him. 
All  goes  according  to  my  program,  I  thought.  But 
there  was  a  new  undertaking  before  me.  I  had  to  ven- 
ture close  enough  to  the  frontier  to  be  able  to  watch  the 
patrols  without  being  seen  by  them.  That  I  succeeded 
in  doing  during  the  following  night. 

I  hid  in  the  thick  underwood;  open  country  was  in 
front  of  me.  I  remained  at  that  spot  for  three  days 
and  nights.  It  rained  and  at  night  it  was  very  chilly. 
On  the  evening  of  the  third  day  I  resolved  to  execute 
my  plan  that  night. 

Regularly  every  fifteen  minutes  a  patrol  of  from  three 
to  six  soldiers  arrived.  When  it  had  got  dark  I 
changed  my  place  for  one  more  to  the  right,  some  five 
hundred  yards  from  the  frontier.  I  said  to  myself  that 
I  would  have  to  venture  out  as  soon  as  it  got  a  little 
lighter.  In  the  darkness  I  could  not  see  anything.  It 
would  have  to  be  done  in  twilight.  I  had  rolled  my  over- 
coat into  a  bundle  to  avoid  making  a  noise  against  the 
trees.  I  advanced  just  after  a  patrol  had  passed.  I 
went  forward  slowly  and  stepped  out  cautiously  with- 
out making  a  noise.  Then  I  walked  with  ever  increas- 
ing rapidity.  Suddenly  a  patrol  appeared  on  my  right. 
The  frontier  was  about  three  hundred  yards  away  from 
me.  The  patrol  had  about  two  hundred  yards  to  the 
point  of  the  frontier  nearest  to  me.  Victory  would  fall 
to  the  best  and  swiftest  runner.  The  patrol  consisted 
of  five  men;  they  fired  several  times.     That  did  not 


THE  FLIGHT  TO  HOLLAND  187 

bother  me.  I  threw  everything  away  and,  summoning 
all  my  strength,  I  made  in  huge  leaps  for  the  frontier 
which  I  passed  like  a  whirlwind.  I  ran  past  the  pointed 
frontier  stone  and  stopped  fifty  yards  away  from  it. 
I  was  quite  out  of  breath,  and  an  indescribable  happy 
feeling  took  hold  of  me.  I  felt  like  crying  into  the 
world  that  at  last  I  was  free. 

I  seated  myself  on  the  stump  of  a  tree  and  lit  a  cigar, 
quite  steadily  and  slowly ;  for  now  I  had  time.  Scarcely 
fifty  yards  away,  near  the  frontier  stone,  was  the  dis- 
appointed patrol.  I  read  on  the  side  of  the  frontier 
stone  facing  me,  "  Koningrjk  der  Nederlanden  "  (King- 
dom of  the  Netherlands).  I  had  to  laugh  with  joy. 
"  Who  are  you  ?  "  one  of  the  German  patrol  called  to 
me.  "  The  Hollanders  have  now  the  right  to  ask 
that  question;  you've  got  that  right  no  longer,  old  fel- 
low," I  replied.  They  called  me  all  manner  of  names, 
but  that  did  not  excite  me.  I  asked  them :  "  Why 
don't  you  throw  me  over  my  bag  which  I  threw  away  in 
the  hurry?  It  contains  some  washing  I  took  along  with 
me  so  as  to  get  into  a  decent  country  like  a  decent 
man." 

Attracted  by  that  conversation,  a  Dutch  patrol,  a 
sergeant  and  three  men,  came  up.  The  sergeant  ques- 
tioned me,  and  I  told  him  all.  He  put  his  hand  on  my 
shoulder  and  said,  "  Be  glad  that  you  are  here  — wij 
Hollanders  weuschen  de  vrede  (we  Hollanders  wish  for 
peace),  and  you  are  welcome  here  in  hospitable  Hol- 
land." 

I  had  to  go  with  the  soldiers  to  their  guard-room  and 
take  breakfast  with  them.  Thereupon  they  showed  me 
the  nearest  road  to  Venlo,  where  I  arrived  at  seven 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  From  Venlo  I  traveled  to  Rot- 
terdam.     I  soon  obtained  a  well-paid  position  and  be- 


188        A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

came  a  man  again,  a  man  who  could  live  and  not  merely 
exist.  Thousands  upon  thousands  of  Belgian  refugees 
are  living  in  Holland  and  are  treated  as  the  guests  of 
the  people.  There  are  also  great  numbers  of  German 
deserters  in  Holland,  where  their  number  is  estimated 
to  be  between  fifteen  and  twenty  thousand.  Those  de- 
serters enjoy  the  full  protection  of  the  Dutch  au- 
thorities. 

I  would  have  never  thought  of  leaving  that  hospitable 
country  with  its  fairly  liberal  constitution  if  the  politi- 
cal sky  had  not  been  so  overclouded  in  the  month  of 
March,  1916. 


XXIV 

AMERICA    AND    SAFETY 

What  I  have  still  to  relate  does  not  concern  actual 
war  experiences.  But  the  reader  might  want  to  know 
how  I  came  to  America.  That  must  be  done  in  a  few 
short  sentences. 

In  Holland  war  was  believed  to  be  unavoidable. 
Again  I  had  to  choose  another  domicile.  After  much 
reflection  and  making  of  plans  I  decided  to  go  to  Amer- 
ica. 

After  having  left  my  place  I  executed  that  plan. 
Some  days  after  I  was  informed  that  the  steamer  Zyl- 
dyk  of  the  Holland-American  line  was  leaving  for  New 
York  in  the  night  from  the  17th  to  the  18th  of  March. 
According  to  my  plan  I  packed  my  things  in  a  sailor's 
bundle  and  began  the  risky  game. 

I  had  never  been  on  a  sea-going  steamer  before. 
The  boat  was  a  small  trader.  I  had  found  out  that 
the  crew  had  to  be  on  board  by  midnight.  I  had  an 
idea  that  the  men  would  not  turn  up  earlier  than  was 
necessary.  With  my  sailor's  bundle  I  stood  ready  on 
the  pier  as  early  as  ten  o'clock.  All  I  had  packed  to- 
gether in  the  excitement  consisted  of  about  seven  pounds 
of  bread  and  a  tin  containing  some  ten  quarts  of 
water.  At  midnight  the  sailors  and  stokers  of  the  boat 
arrived.  Most  of  them  were  drunk  and  came  tumbling 
along  with  their  bundles  on  their  backs.  I  mixed  with 
the   crowd   and   tumbled   along  with   them.      I   reached 

189 


190       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

the  deck  without  being  discovered.  I  observed  next  to 
me  a  deep  black  hole  with  an  iron  ladder  leading  down- 
wards. I  threw  my  bundle  down  that  hole  and  climbed 
after  it.  All  was  dark.  I  groped  my  way  to  the  coal 
bunker.  I  would  have  struck  a  match,  but  I  dared 
not  make  a  light.  So  I  crawled  onto  the  coal  which 
filled  the  space  right  up  to  the  ceiling.  Pushing  my 
bundle  in  front  of  me  I  made  my  way  through  the  coal, 
filling  again  the  opening  behind  me  with  coal.  Having 
in  that  manner  traversed  some  thirty  yards  I  came  upofl 
a  wall.  There  I  pushed  the  coal  aside  so  as  to  have 
room  to  lie  down.  I  turned  my  back  against  the  outer 
wall  of  the  boat. 

Nobody  suspected  in  the  slightest  degree  that  I  was 
on  board.  Now  the  journey  can  start,  I  thought  to 
myself.  At  last  the  engines  began  to  work;  we  were 
off.  After  many  long  hours  the  engines  stopped. 
Now  we  are  in  England  I  guessed.  Perhaps  we  were 
off  Dover  or  somewhere  else;  I  did  not  know.  Every- 
thing was  darkness  down  there.  While  the  boat  was 
stopping  I  heard  the  thunder  of  guns  close  to  us.  I 
had  no  idea  what  that  might  mean.  I  said  to  myself, 
"  If  the  English  find  me  my  voyage  is  ended."  But  they 
did  not  turn  up. 

At  last  we  proceeded;  I  did  not  know  how  long  we 
had  stopped.  All  went  well;  I  scarcely  felt  the  boat 
move.  However,  it  was  bitterly  cold,  and  I  noticed 
that  the  cold  increased  steadily.  Then  the  weather  be- 
came rougher  and  rougher.  Days  must  have  passed. 
I  never  knew  whether  it  was  day  or  night.  Down  in 
my  place  it  was  always  night.  I  ate  bread  and  drank 
water.  But  I  had  scarcely  eaten  when  all  came  up 
again.     Thus  my  stomach  was  always  empty. 

Through  the  rolling  of  the  boat  I  was  nearly  buried 


AMERICA  AXD  SAFETY  191 

by  the  coal.  It  got  worse  and  worse,  and  I  had  to  use 
all  iny  strength  to  keep  the  coal  away  from  me.  The 
big  lumps  wounded  me  all  about  the  head;  I  felt  the 
blood  run  over  my  face.  My  store  of  bread  was  nearly 
finished,  and  the  water  tasted  stale.  I  lit  a  match  and 
saw  that  the  bread  was  quite  black. 

I  wondered  whether  we  were  nearly  there.  No  more 
bread.  I  felt  my  strength  leave  me  more  and  more. 
The  boat  went  up  and  down,  and  I  was  thrown  hither 
and  thither  for  hours,  for  days.  I  felt  I  could  not 
stand  it  much  longer.  I  wondered  how  long  we  had 
been  on  the  water.  I  had  no  idea.  I  was  awfully  hun- 
gry. Days  passed  again.  I  noticed  that  I  had  be- 
come quite  thin. 

At  last  the  engines  stopped  again.  But  soon  we 
were  off  once  more.  After  long,  long  hours  the  boat 
stopped.  I  listened.  All  was  quiet.  Then  I  heard 
them  unloading  with  cranes. 

New  York !  —  After  a  while  I  crept  forth.  I  found 
that  half  of  the  coal  had  been  taken  away.  Not  a  soul 
was  there.  Then  I  climbed  down  a  ladder  into  the 
stokehole;  nobody  was  there  either.  I  noticed  a  pail 
and  filled  it  with  warm  water.  With  it  I  hastened  into 
a  dark  corner  and  washed  myself.  I  was  terribly  tired 
and  had  to  hold  on  to  something  so  as  not  to  collapse. 
When  I  had  washed  I  took  my  pocket  mirror  and  gazed 
at  my  face.  My  own  face  frightened  me;  for  I  looked 
pale  as  a  sheet  and  like  a  bundle  of  skin  and  bones. 
I  wondered  how  long  the  voyage  had  lasted.  I  had 
to  laugh  in  spite  of  my  misery  —  I  had  crossed  the 
ocean  and  had  never  seen  it ! 

The  problem  was  now  to  get  on  land.  What  should 
I  say  if  they  caught  me?  I  thought  that  if  I  were 
caught  now  I  should  simply  say  I  wanted  to  get  to 


192       A  GERMAN  DESERTER'S  WAR  EXPERIENCE 

Holland  as  a  stowaway  in  order  to  reach  Germany.  In 
that  case,  I  thought,  they  would  quickly  enough  put 
me  back  on  land.  With  firm  resolve  I  climbed  on  deck 
which  was  full  of  workmen. 

I  noticed  a  stair-way  leading  to  the  warehouse. 
Gathering  all  my  strength  I  loitered  up  to  it  in  a  care- 
less way  and  —  two  minutes  later  I  had  landed.  I 
found  myself  in  the  street  outside  the  warehouse. 

Up  to  that  time  I  had  kept  on  my  legs.  But  now  my 
strength  left  me,  and  I  dropped  on  the  nearest  steps. 

It  was  only  then  that  I  became  aware  of  the  fact 
that  I  was  not  in  New  York,  but  in  Philadelphia.  It 
was  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  April  5th,  1916.  I 
had  reckoned  on  twelve  days  and  the  voyage  had  taken 
eighteen. 

Physically  a  wreck,  I  became  acquainted  with  na- 
tive Americans  in  the  evening.  They  afforded  me  every 
assistance  that  one  human  being  can  give  to  another. 
One  of  those  most  noble-minded  humanitarians  took  me 
to  New  York.  I  could  not  leave  my  room  for  a  week 
on  account  of  the  hardships  I  had  undergone ;  I  recov- 
ered only  slowly. 

But  to-day  I  have  recovered  sufficiently  to  take  up 
again  in  the  ranks  of  the  American  Socialists  the  fight 
against  capitalism  the  extirpation  of  which  must  be 
the  aim  of  every  class-conscious  worker.  A  relentless 
struggle  to  the  bitter  end  is  necessary  to  show  the  rul- 
ing war  provoking  capitalist  caste  who  is  the  stronger, 
so  that  it  no  longer  may  be  in  the  power  of  that  class 
to  provoke  such  a  murderous  war  as  that  in  which  th« 
working-class  of  Europe  is  now  bleeding  to  death. 


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